Vibrant Matter, Actants and the Limits of Human Agency in Saramago’s The Stone Raft

Year 2023, Volume: 33 Issue: 1, 125 - 143, 04.07.2023

Catherine Macmillan

https://doi.org/10.26650/LITERA2022-1212668

Abstract

This paper focuses on José Saramago’s novel The Stone Raft, set during an imaginary geo(il)logical event, the separation of the Iberian Peninsula from the European mainland. This event brings together a group of human and non-human protagonists, who seem to have mysterious connections with this event. The novel follows the group, which arguably forms a mini-community, as they travel around the former peninsula. It also explores the political disruptions which this event, directly and indirectly, provokes at various levels from the local to the international, including, for instance, closer relations between Portugal and Spain the souring of relations between the Iberian countries and Europe, widespread protests in Europe and the occupation of hotels by slum-dwellers across the Peninsula. In this context, the novel is explored from the perspective of Jane Bennett’s vital materialism, as put forward in her 2010 book “Vibrant Matter”. For Bennett, humans tend to overestimate their agency, while viewing matter as simply inert. In her view, however, material things may be important ‘actants’, particularly when they act as part of a human/non-human assemblage. Saramago’s narrator, like Bennett herself, constantly questions the human tendency to over-attribute agency (and responsibility) for events to humans alone, suggesting that matter, and human/non-human assemblages, may also be important actants.

Keywords

Saramago, vital materialism, Jane Bennett, assemblage, actant

References

• Anderson, B. (2011). Book Review Forum: Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Dialogues in Human Geography 1(3), 393-396 google scholar
• Bennett, J. (2004). The Force of Things: Steps Towards an Ecology of Matter. Political Theory 32(3), 347-372. DOI: google scholar
• Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke University Press. google scholar
• Bloom, H. (2005). Introduction. In H.Bloom (ed.), Bloom's Modern Critical Views: Jose Saramago (pp. ix-xviii). Philadelphia: Chelsea House. google scholar
• Braun, B. (2011). Book Review Forum: Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Dialogues in Human Geography 1(3), 390-393 https://doi.org/10.1177/204382061142156. google scholar
• Daniel, M.L. (2005). Symbolism and Synchronicity: Jose Saramago’s Jangada de Pedra (The Stone Raft). In H. Bloom (ed.) Bloom's Modern Critical Views: JoseSaramago (pp. 11-24). Philadelphia: Chelsea House. google scholar
• DeLanda, M. (2006). A New Philosophy of Society. London: Continuum. google scholar Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. google scholar
• Ferreira, A.P (2018). Saramago’s Axiology of Gender Difference. In C. Salzani & K.P. Vanhoutte (eds.), Saramago’s Philosophical Heritage (pp.163-192). London: Palgrave Macmillan. google scholar
• Khan, G. (2009). Agency, Nature and Emergent Properties: An Interview with Jane Bennett. Contemporary Political Theory 8 (1), 90-105. google scholar
• Lemke, T. (2018). An Alternative Model of Politics? Prospects and Problems of Jane Bennett’s Vital Materialism. Theory, Culture & Society 35(6), 31 -54. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276418757316. google scholar
• Ranciere, J. (1995). Disagreement:PoliticsandPhilosophy. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. google scholar
• Sabine, M.J.L. (2005). “Once but no longer the prow of Europe”: National Identity and Portuguese Destiny in Jose Saramago’s The Stone Raft. In H. Bloom (ed.) Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Jose Saramago (pp. 75-94). Philadelphia: Chelsea House. google scholar
• Salzani, C. & Vanhoutte, K.K.P. (2018a). Introduction: Proteus the Philosopher or Reading google scholar
• Saramago as a Lover of Wisdom. In C. Salzani and K.K.P. Vanhoutte (eds.), Saramago’s Philosophical Heritage (pp. 1-18). London: Palgrave Macmillan. google scholar
• Salzani, C. & Vanhoutte, K.K.P. (2018b). Saramago’s Dogs: For an Inclusive Humanism. In google scholar
• Salzani, C. & K.K.P. Vanhoutte (eds.), Saramago’s Philosophical Heritage (pp. 193-210). London: Palgrave Macmillan. google scholar
• Saramago, Jose (1986), The Stone Raft. San Diego: Harvest Books. google scholar
• Seixto, M.A. (2001). The Edge of Darkness, or, Why Saramago Has Never Written about the Colonial War in Africa. Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies (Spring 2001), 205-219. google scholar
• Varela Âlvarez, EJ. (2018). Los Mil y Un Relatos Politologicos de Saramago Surgidos de La Balsa de Piedra Varela (ucsb.edu). google scholar
• Vakil, A.K. (2000). Saramago’s Other Island (An interview with Jose Saramago, Lanzarote, 12 October (99+) Saramago’s Other Island (An interview with Jose Saramago, Lanzarote, 12 October 2000) | AbdoolKarim Vakil - Academia.edu google scholar