ABSTRACT

This essay argues that a persistent structure of feeling in the literature and cultural politics of coal extraction in the United States can be described by Lauren Berlant’s concept of ‘cruel optimism’. This contradictory desire for an object which materially prevents the flourishing it promises is evident in the case of the fossil energies, which are invested with late Fordist fantasies of stabilisation at the same time that climate change renders them untenable. It explores this ‘coal optimism’ through William T. Vollmann’s two-volume Carbon Ideologies, and recent novels by Tawni O’Dell and Carter Sickels, each of which call into question the utility of affect in the context of energy and climate discourse.

摘要

本文认为，劳伦·伯兰特（Lauren Berlant）的“残酷乐观主义”概念可以描述美国煤炭开采的文学和文化政治中的持久情感结构。在矿物能量的情况下，对从实质上阻止其承诺繁荣的物体的这种矛盾渴望是显而易见的，而化石能量则被福特斯（Fordist）的后期幻想所稳定，而气候变化却使它们变得难以为继。它通过威廉·T·沃尔曼（William T.Vollmann）的两卷《碳意识形态》以及托尼·奥德尔和卡特·西克尔斯（Tawni O'Dell）和卡特·西克斯（Carter Sickels）的最新小说来探讨这种“煤炭乐观主义” ，每一篇小说都对能源在能源和气候话语中的效用产生了疑问。