Hybrid Fiction and the Constitution of Subjectivity in Twenty-First Century American Literature

This thesis studies hybrid fiction to identify characteristics of contemporary American literature in the twenty-first century. Hybrid fiction represents the role of affect in the constitution of human subjectivities. Affect presupposes an interconnection between humans and nonhumans and challenges the distinction between the subject and the object. Hybrid fiction thus portrays humans as relational entities with the potential to affect and be affected by humans and nonhuman others. Moreover, it emphasizes the influence of affect in the relationship between the text and the reader. It uses certain forms, structures, and writing styles are used in hybrid fiction to make the reader an active participant in meaning production. Accordingly, hybrid fiction is committed to hybrid and affective thinking both at the levels of form and content.
The thesis considers the juxtaposition between affect and subjectivity in three aspects: authenticity, literacy, and critique. The first chapter examines narrative subjectivities as a site in which affect reconceptualizes self-authenticity as a form of accountability. The second chapter explores affective forms of literacy in the experience of urban subjects. Lastly, the third chapter explores the connection between forms and the post-critical practice in network subjectivities. By examining the representation of these three subjectivities in connection with authenticity, literacy, and critique, it is possible to see the influence of affective thinking in hybrid fiction as representative of contemporary American literature.