The Novel – Thomas Travers

Playground

For the past year I have been working (in an administrative capacity) for an ocean science master’s program based on the Cote d’Azur. Amongst many unexpected scenarios, the job has also provided me with a crash course in a set of concepts, practices, and terminology that at times has felt otherworldly: what exactly is aContinue reading “Playground”

Peripheralizing DeLillo – An Introduction

The below is a copy of a talk I gave at the Marxism in Culture seminar series on the 7th of July 2023. I would like to thank Antigoni Memou and Andy Murray for helping to organise the talk, David Cunningham for agreeing to act as a discussant, and Barry Dean and Toby Manning forContinue reading “Peripheralizing DeLillo – An Introduction”

Beamed in Ahead of Schedule: The Novel After Value

The below is an extended version of a talk I gave at the University of Warwick on the 7th of June 2023 as part of the Capitalism and Crisis seminar series organised by Will Berrington. I would like to thank Will for the invitation to present and participate in the series, and my co-panelist onContinue reading “Beamed in Ahead of Schedule: The Novel After Value”

Organising the Present – Part One

Reflections on Political Formalism in Hwang Sok-yong’s At Dusk and Ricardo Piglia’s The Way Out In recent years, the prevailing theoretical trends within literary studies have consistently undersold the value and world-making capacities of humanities scholarship. Rather than study the forms through which literature builds and models social relations, critics have been enthralled to aContinue reading “Organising the Present – Part One”