Metabolics of the Book
In volume 3 of Capital, Marx uses the emerging concept of “metabolism” – borrowed from the organic chemist Justus von Liebig – to describe the crisis that capitalism introduces into the world, severing the link between sites of production and consumption and producing an “irreparable rift in the interdependent process of the social metabolism.” In this talk, I will discuss Marx’s concept of “metabolic rift” as a framework for understanding contemporary writing, specifically that which is loosely grouped under the genres of autofiction and autotheory, and which takes sexuality as the raw material of theoretical speculation. I propose to read the autopoetic urge as a fantasy about repair within the longue duree of the rift.
Jordy Rosenberg is a Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and the author of Confessions of the Fox (Random House, 2018) and Critical Enthusiasm (Oxford University Press, 2011). Confessions was shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown, a Lambda Literary Award, the Publishers Triangle Award, and longlisted for The Dublin Literary Prize. It was named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and Buzzfeed, among other places. The title of his current work in progress, The Day Unravels What the Night Has Woven, is a shameless ripoff of something Walter Benjamin once said about forgetting as key to the writing process.
Where: The Cooper Union
7 E. 7th St. | 41 Cooper Sq.
212-353-4100 Price: Free
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In volume 3 of Capital, Marx uses the emerging concept of “metabolism” – borrowed from the organic chemist Justus von Liebig – to describe the crisis that capitalism introduces into the world, severing the link between sites of production and consumption and producing an “irreparable rift in the interdependent process of the social metabolism.” In this talk, I will discuss Marx’s concept of “metabolic rift” as a framework for understanding contemporary writing, specifically that which is loosely grouped under the genres of autofiction and autotheory, and which takes sexuality as the raw material of theoretical speculation. I propose to read the autopoetic urge as a fantasy about repair within the longue duree of the rift.
Jordy Rosenberg is a Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and the author of Confessions of the Fox (Random House, 2018) and Critical Enthusiasm (Oxford University Press, 2011). Confessions was shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown, a Lambda Literary Award, the Publishers Triangle Award, and longlisted for The Dublin Literary Prize. It was named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and Buzzfeed, among other places. The title of his current work in progress, The Day Unravels What the Night Has Woven, is a shameless ripoff of something Walter Benjamin once said about forgetting as key to the writing process.
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