Sebastian Huber is Lecturer for English at the Fresenius University, Munich, Germany.

Drawing on Alain Badiou’s notion of ‘the subject of the event,’ Huber leads the way out of a conceptual deadlock that has informed much of contemporary literary studies. Having less agency than the premodern ‘subject-supposed-to-be-autonomous,’ but more agency than the postmodern subject ‘supposed-to-be-a-victim-of-discursive-circumstance,’ the ‘subject of the event’ allows to think a precarious, invariably site- and time-specific subjectivity that is not either active or passive, but active and passive simultaneously. In a number of brilliantly provocative readings of contemporary American fiction, Huber asks what it means for this new subject – or should I simply say ‘us’? – to be ‘faithful’ or also ‘unfaithful’ to the event. What ultimately drives the book’s argument is Badiou’s equally pressing and acute question of ’how are we to be faithful to changing the world within the world itself?’ On this background, Huber’s book promises to become itself somewhat of an event.

• AcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: America’s Subjects of EventsChapter 1. The Question of the Event and the Question(s) of the SubjectChapter 2. ‘You have to carry the fire’: The Reactive Subject in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006)Chapter 3. 'With Us or Against Us’: The Obscure Subject in Jess Walter’s The Zero (2006)Chapter 4. ‘Let us go then you and I’: The Amorous Subject in Mark Z. Danielewski’s Only Revolutions (2006)Chapter 5. ‘You’ll never be passé’: The Aesthetico-Political Subject in Paul Beatty’s Slumberland (2008)Chapter 6. ‘There is nothing to compare it to now’: The Scientific-Political Subjects in Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day (2006)Conclusion: The End as EnjambmentNotesBibliographyIndex

Sebastian Huber is Lecturer for English at the Fresenius University, Munich, Germany.

Drawing on Alain Badiou’s notion of ‘the subject of the event,’ Huber leads the way out of a conceptual deadlock that has informed much of contemporary literary studies. Having less agency than the premodern ‘subject-supposed-to-be-autonomous,’ but more agency than the postmodern subject ‘supposed-to-be-a-victim-of-discursive-circumstance,’ the ‘subject of the event’ allows to think a precarious, invariably site- and time-specific subjectivity that is not either active or passive, but active and passive simultaneously. In a number of brilliantly provocative readings of contemporary American fiction, Huber asks what it means for this new subject – or should I simply say ‘us’? – to be ‘faithful’ or also ‘unfaithful’ to the event. What ultimately drives the book’s argument is Badiou’s equally pressing and acute question of ’how are we to be faithful to changing the world within the world itself?’ On this background, Huber’s book promises to become itself somewhat of an event.

• AcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: America’s Subjects of EventsChapter 1. The Question of the Event and the Question(s) of the SubjectChapter 2. ‘You have to carry the fire’: The Reactive Subject in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006)Chapter 3. 'With Us or Against Us’: The Obscure Subject in Jess Walter’s The Zero (2006)Chapter 4. ‘Let us go then you and I’: The Amorous Subject in Mark Z. Danielewski’s Only Revolutions (2006)Chapter 5. ‘You’ll never be passé’: The Aesthetico-Political Subject in Paul Beatty’s Slumberland (2008)Chapter 6. ‘There is nothing to compare it to now’: The Scientific-Political Subjects in Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day (2006)Conclusion: The End as EnjambmentNotesBibliographyIndex

Sebastian Huber is Lecturer for English at the Fresenius University, Munich, Germany.

Drawing on Alain Badiou’s notion of ‘the subject of the event,’ Huber leads the way out of a conceptual deadlock that has informed much of contemporary literary studies. Having less agency than the premodern ‘subject-supposed-to-be-autonomous,’ but more agency than the postmodern subject ‘supposed-to-be-a-victim-of-discursive-circumstance,’ the ‘subject of the event’ allows to think a precarious, invariably site- and time-specific subjectivity that is not either active or passive, but active and passive simultaneously. In a number of brilliantly provocative readings of contemporary American fiction, Huber asks what it means for this new subject – or should I simply say ‘us’? – to be ‘faithful’ or also ‘unfaithful’ to the event. What ultimately drives the book’s argument is Badiou’s equally pressing and acute question of ’how are we to be faithful to changing the world within the world itself?’ On this background, Huber’s book promises to become itself somewhat of an event.

• AcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: America’s Subjects of EventsChapter 1. The Question of the Event and the Question(s) of the SubjectChapter 2. ‘You have to carry the fire’: The Reactive Subject in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006)Chapter 3. 'With Us or Against Us’: The Obscure Subject in Jess Walter’s The Zero (2006)Chapter 4. ‘Let us go then you and I’: The Amorous Subject in Mark Z. Danielewski’s Only Revolutions (2006)Chapter 5. ‘You’ll never be passé’: The Aesthetico-Political Subject in Paul Beatty’s Slumberland (2008)Chapter 6. ‘There is nothing to compare it to now’: The Scientific-Political Subjects in Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day (2006)Conclusion: The End as EnjambmentNotesBibliographyIndex