5.1 We Have This-ness, Y’all!

Season 5 of Novel Dialogue opens with an impassioned refresher course in literary theory brought to you by Ocean Vuong, poet and author of the bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019). Ocean talks with critic Amy E. Elkins and host Emily Hyde about browsing bookstore shelves and building his personal reading list of “life-giving weirdos.” They discuss genre and gender, antiquing and thrifting, fish sauce and photography, all the while integrating the insights of queer theory and the full range of literary history. What does looking at the world as a junkyard have to do with making art? What does it feel like to run smack dab into a memory? How can we be mindful of the fact that words (like “this”) are tiny objects with infinite possibilities? If autofiction annoys you, listen for how the form reinvents the self against dominant class and gender structures. And if your boots have ever touched down in Hot Springs, Arkansas, stay tuned for our signature question and don’t miss this episode!

Mentions:

• Judith Butler
• Anne Carson Autobiography of Red
• Bhanu Kapil
• Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
• Djuna Barnes Nightwood
• Freytag’s triangle
• Tim Ingold, Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture
• Walter Benjamin, “The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov”
• Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
• Amy E. Elkins, “The Weaver’s Handshake”
• William Carlos Williams
• Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
• Susan Sontag
• Walt Whitman
• Langston Hughes
• Lucille Clifton
• Hot Springs High School
• The Sugarhill Gang, “Rappers Delight”

Find out more about Novel Dialogue and its hosts and organizers here. Contact us, get that exact quote from a transcript, and explore many more conversations between novelists and critics.

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