Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Master of Arts

Program

Theory and Criticism

Supervisor

Keep, Christopher

2nd Supervisor

Vanderheide, John

Abstract

This thesis begins with the observation that waste is to an outsized degree subject to the modal verbs; we might say that waste gives way to the sense of waste. As a result, waste appears as an unusually animate–and animating–actant, producing in those who apprehend it the impulse to put that which is wasted to use. The introductory chapter establishes this fact and provides a brief overview of scholarly approaches to the study of waste, asserting that in order to transcend mere description of the phenomenon it is necessary to establish how waste as an actant entered into its present relation with human actors. The second chapter establishes the historicity of the relation between waste and those who apprehend it. This chapter finds that waste took on agitating character following the enclosure of the common wastes, and the vanishing of the original, integral referent that was inclusive of both socially egalitarian and economic dimensions. I argue that waste has since became a dead metaphor latently active in the conceptual system enabling one to identify waste in only its economic dimension. The agitation about waste is thus the impulse to repeat the gesture of enclosure. The final chapter, by way of an analysis of Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I, argues for the necessity of constructing a Benjaminian dialectical image of waste in order that a utopian dimension of waste might come into focus.

Summary for Lay Audience

This thesis begins with the observation that waste tends to produce in those who apprehend it the sense of waste. In this respect, waste is unusually animate and animating, producing in those who apprehend it the impulse to put that which is wasted to use. The introductory chapter provides an overview of approaches to the study waste. I argue that many of these approaches are only able to describe the phenomenon of the sense of waste and that in order to truly explain this sense it is necessary to establish how the sense of waste emerged. The second chapter provides a tentative history of the sense of waste. This chapter finds that the sense of waste emerged as a result of the enclosure of the common waste, the land on the feudal estate that the common folk freely made use of. Prior to enclosure, waste had both socially egalitarian and economic associations. After, only the economic sense of waste remained. I argue that with the vanishing of the original referent–that to which a word refers–waste took on a metaphorical character, with only the economic aspect of waste emphasized, eventually becoming a dead metaphor. This dead metaphor, I argue, still informs our sense of waste today. The sense of waste then, plays a decisive early role in facilitating economic thinking and in turn is reinforced by the ever-increasing demand to think in economic terms. The final chapter, by way of an analysis of Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I, argues for the necessity of recapturing old senses of waste in order for egalitarian dimensions of waste might come into view. My claim is that learning methods by which to cultivate old understandings of waste might allow us to see clearly the conflict between economic and social values that play out materially.

Download

Share

COinS