‘An exercise in magical thinking’: The Troubling Matter of Will Self’s ‘Dirty Magical Realism’
However provocative a coinage to begin with, Will Self’s description of his work as ‘dirty magical realism’ has not only endured, but also proven to be an operative prism through which to approach his writing ethos and praxis from his debut short story collection to the Umbrella trilogy. His sustain...
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| الحاوية / القاعدة: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc, |
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| المؤلف الرئيسي: | |
| التنسيق: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| اللغة: | Anglais |
| منشور في: |
Études britanniques contemporaines
2025
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| الموضوعات: | |
| الوصول للمادة أونلاين: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ebc_17992 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ebc_17992 https://doi.org/10.4000/158ki urn:doi:10.4000/158ki en https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/17992 2025-11-28T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/158ki https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ‘An exercise in magical thinking’: The Troubling Matter of Will Self’s ‘Dirty Magical Realism’ Études britanniques contemporaines Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2271-5444 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1168-4917 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc Gagneret, Diane esprit corps Will Self matière enchevêtrement réalisme magique sale (nouveau(x)) matérialisme(s) expérience incarnée psychose organisme mind body Will Self matter entanglement dirty magical realism (new) materialism(s) embodied experience psychosis organism However provocative a coinage to begin with, Will Self’s description of his work as ‘dirty magical realism’ has not only endured, but also proven to be an operative prism through which to approach his writing ethos and praxis from his debut short story collection to the Umbrella trilogy. His sustained exploration and interrogation of the modes and meanings of the mimetic impulse, and highly idiosyncratic brand of realism, demonstrates realism as a whole to be the ‘capacious form’ (Gąsiorek) it is now being (re)conceptualised as. His core fictional method, hinging on the ‘enmeshing of matter and thought’ (Bernard) and an ‘antipathy toward oppositional ways of thinking’ (Coole and Frost), grounds his philosophy and practice of realism in the new materialisms that have emerged in post-human times. By considering first embodiment, then entanglement and finally, enactment, this article explores some of the ways in the poetics and politics of Self’s dirty magical, and decidedly material, realism contribute to re-presenting it not as reproduction, but as redefinition of reality—and its interactions with fiction. Le terme de ‘réalisme magique sale’ créé par Will Self pour décrire sa fiction, bien qu’initialement employé à des fins de provocation, se révèle pourtant opératoire pour appréhender sa philosophie et sa pratique d’écriture, du premier recueil de nouvelles à la trilogie Umbrella. L’exploration et le questionnement des modes et sens de la pulsion mimétique qu’il propose au fil de ses fictions, ainsi que son approche idiosyncratique du réalisme, en font bien cette ‘forme accueillante’ (Gąsiorek) telle qu’elle est reconceptualisée de nos jours. La méthode fictionnelle de Self, parce qu’elle s’articule principalement autour d’u ‘enchevêtrement de la matière et de la pensée’ (Bernard) et d’une ‘antipathie envers les modes de pensées oppositionnels’ (Coole et Frost), ancre sa pratique du réalisme dans les nouveaux matérialismes ayant émergé à l’ère du posthumain. S’intéressant tout d’abord à l’idée d’incarnation (embodiment), puis à celle d’enchevêtrement (entanglement) et enfin de mise en œuvre (enactment), cet article explore certaines des façons dont la poétique et la politique du réalisme magique sale, et foncièrement matérialiste, de Self, contribuent à re-présenter le réalisme non comme reproduction, mais comme redéfinition de la réalité et de ses rapports à la fiction. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
esprit corps Will Self matière enchevêtrement réalisme magique sale (nouveau(x)) matérialisme(s) expérience incarnée psychose organisme mind body Will Self matter entanglement dirty magical realism (new) materialism(s) embodied experience psychosis organism |
| spellingShingle |
esprit corps Will Self matière enchevêtrement réalisme magique sale (nouveau(x)) matérialisme(s) expérience incarnée psychose organisme mind body Will Self matter entanglement dirty magical realism (new) materialism(s) embodied experience psychosis organism Gagneret, Diane ‘An exercise in magical thinking’: The Troubling Matter of Will Self’s ‘Dirty Magical Realism’ |
| description |
However provocative a coinage to begin with, Will Self’s description of his work as ‘dirty magical realism’ has not only endured, but also proven to be an operative prism through which to approach his writing ethos and praxis from his debut short story collection to the Umbrella trilogy. His sustained exploration and interrogation of the modes and meanings of the mimetic impulse, and highly idiosyncratic brand of realism, demonstrates realism as a whole to be the ‘capacious form’ (Gąsiorek) it is now being (re)conceptualised as. His core fictional method, hinging on the ‘enmeshing of matter and thought’ (Bernard) and an ‘antipathy toward oppositional ways of thinking’ (Coole and Frost), grounds his philosophy and practice of realism in the new materialisms that have emerged in post-human times. By considering first embodiment, then entanglement and finally, enactment, this article explores some of the ways in the poetics and politics of Self’s dirty magical, and decidedly material, realism contribute to re-presenting it not as reproduction, but as redefinition of reality—and its interactions with fiction. |
| author |
Gagneret, Diane |
| author_facet |
Gagneret, Diane |
| author_sort |
Gagneret, Diane |
| title |
‘An exercise in magical thinking’: The Troubling Matter of Will Self’s ‘Dirty Magical Realism’ |
| title_short |
‘An exercise in magical thinking’: The Troubling Matter of Will Self’s ‘Dirty Magical Realism’ |
| title_full |
‘An exercise in magical thinking’: The Troubling Matter of Will Self’s ‘Dirty Magical Realism’ |
| title_fullStr |
‘An exercise in magical thinking’: The Troubling Matter of Will Self’s ‘Dirty Magical Realism’ |
| title_full_unstemmed |
‘An exercise in magical thinking’: The Troubling Matter of Will Self’s ‘Dirty Magical Realism’ |
| title_sort |
‘an exercise in magical thinking’: the troubling matter of will self’s ‘dirty magical realism’ |
| publisher |
Études britanniques contemporaines |
| publishDate |
2025 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/158ki https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/17992 |
| _version_ |
1877291867232534528 |