"U." Could Write Me: Inspiring Resistance through Dividual Ways in Tom McCarthy's Satin Island

Abstract

[eng] The confluence of the process of Globalization with the increasing prominence of emergent economies and the rapid advances in digital technologies have utterly transformed the foundations of Western capitalist societies in the last decade. As a result, the prevailing networked culture is growing into an increasingly dehumanising space in need of critical response; one that Postmodernism cannot longer grant. Metamodernism however, appears as a renewed proposal that hangs in the balance of Postmodern irony and Modern enthusiasm to account for the metamorphoses of the present. Metamodern intellectuals seize in art and literature the possibility of conveying a common experience as well as a resistance towards present-day uneasiness. Tom McCarthy’s Satin Island (2015) condenses these contemporary dilemmas as well as offering a reflection on the place of literature in the Google era. The novel provides an insight into U., a corporate anthropologist who is entrusted with writing The Great Report, the project that is going to unveil the universal codex governing our age. In his endeavour, the protagonist navigates through moments of delusion, frustration, connectivity, interconnection and disconnection to portray a world of unemotional selves, buffer zones and recidual narratives. The aim of this thesis is to present Satin Island as a Metamodern novel and analyse the strategies of resistance that McCarthy offers against the contemporary turmoil. First, human relations are examined through the lens of dividual affects, which provide both a critique and a solution to the lack of interpersonal sensibility. Second, the corrosive effects of capitalism are put to scrutiny by exposing the mechanics of corporations functioning under digitalism and the Net. Finally, the main components of a novel, including content, form, the writer and the reader are assessed to determine how literature can help apprehend the present and improve the future.