Contaminations : Beyond Dialectics in Modern Literature, Science and Film

The figure of contamination as developed in this book offers a new perspective of negativity which questions the current influence of Hegelian dialectics in contemporary theory and philosophy. The book also offers a critical introduction to the critique of dialectics to which it at the same time contributes as an original piece of research.

Whereas dialectics separates two entities and traverses from one to the other (finally negating negation), contamination allows for the simultaneous interdependence of what has previously been conceived as separate or opposed. The book enquires into the problem of various oppositions between pure entities such as nature and society, body and mind, science and the arts, subjectivity and objectivity, action and contemplation, the sacred and the profane. It examines how works of literature and cinema have contaminated constructions of the pure and the immune with their purported opposite. As an advanced critical introduction to the figure of contamination, the book makes explicit what so far has remained unarticulated-what has only been implied-within postmodern and poststructuralist, and deconstructive theory. Combining theory with literary criticism, the book sheds light on how overlooked aspects of Henry James''s , H. Melville''s and H. G. Wells''s novels question notions of natural order as well as an opposition between the subjective and the objective. It offers fresh readings of classic films and literary texts, including Vertigo and Moby Dick, with the aim to ground theoretical insights in close analysis."