The performative novel : Edward Abbey’s 'The monkey wrench gang'

Abstract

This dissertation explores the performativity of activism in twentieth century environmental literature. The notion of a literary text performing an act of activism will be studied using Edward Abbey’s novel The Monkey Wrench Gang. The dissertation will begin with the theoretical analysis of activist literature to analyse what makes certain environmental novels activist literature. Then, the study will focus on Edward Abbey’s biography and his choice to use writing as an action to speak out for the environment. The aim is to explore the source of the activist force to identify the purpose and the intention behind the literary text. The second part of the chapter will concentrate on the novel’s activist force and its effect on the reader. It will allow categorise the novel as activist literature; moreover, to consider it as an activist. In the third chapter, the examination of the act of reading as a performance and speech act theory will take place. The first part is meant to suggest where acts of activism committed by a literary text might happen as the reader like the audience, is a crucial part of a successful performance. The latter one will turn towards speech act theory to assert using narration a voice to a literary text; thus, suggesting that the literary text during the act of reading speaks to the reader and, therefore, is able to perform. In the last part, speech acts based on ecocentrism and anthropocentrism will be used to depict how certain words create images, which perform acts of activism during the act of reading. Through Abbey’s novel, the idea of a literary text performing an act of activism is revealed as possible reflecting the power of the literary text being an activist.