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The Exonerative Deterministic: Uses of Neo-naturalism in Twenty-First Century American Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2020

ALAN GIBBS
ALAN GIBBS*
Affiliation:
Department of English, University College Cork. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

This article examines the resurgence of an especially deterministic form of naturalism in contemporary American culture, which can be linked to particular attributes of neoliberalism. In particular, neoliberal power is shown to have been exercised partly through what the author terms “exonerative determinism,” a discourse whereby those in power claim to have been forced by outside circumstances into morally dubious policies. Two neo-naturalist texts – Dave Eggers's novel Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?, and the television miniseries The Night Of – are employed as case studies in order to examine the discourse of exonerative determinism. The essay concludes with a brief examination of how this discourse has been more overtly employed during the Trump administration.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 5 , December 2021 , pp. 1046 - 1070
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and British Association for American Studies 2020

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References

1 Vijith Assar, “An Interactive Guide to Ambiguous Grammar,” McSweeney's Internet Tendency, 3 Sept. 2015, at www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-interactive-guide-to-ambiguous-grammar, original italics.

2 This is not to suggest that neo-naturalism is solely an American phenomenon; consider Ian McEwan's Saturday (2005) for example. The resurgence of naturalism is, however, most conspicuous and widespread in US culture.

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24 HBO's 2020 adaptation of Roth's novel demonstrates its continued relevance to the American political landscape. It also underlines links between contemporary naturalist texts, given that it was adapted by David Simon and Ed Burns, previously showrunners on another key neo-naturalist text, The Wire.

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29 In the same interview, Eggers had this to say about the novel's location: “it's important that [Thomas is] at the end of the country, and feels he has nowhere to go. He's like the bear on the California flag. These are huge mammals that need a range of three hundred miles or so to thrive. Well, there aren't three hundred miles anywhere anymore in California, so basically the bears have been driven to the sea. That's where and what Thomas is, too – a suddenly unnecessary animal driven off the edge of the continent.” In terms of naturalism, that final phrase is particularly telling.

30 Eggers, Dave, Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? (London: Hamish Hamilton, 2014), 85Google Scholar.

31 Ibid., 29.

32 Ibid., 32.

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35 Ibid., 37.

36 Ibid., 40.

37 Ibid., 46.

38 Ibid., 86, original italics.

39 Ibid., 86.

40 Ibid., 100.

41 Ibid., 97.

42 Ibid., 204.

43 Ibid., 77, 159–73, 179. The cop, in a way which specifically evokes the language of exonerative determinism, refers euphemistically to Don's death as “an unfortunate incident.” Ibid., 167.

44 Ibid., 181, 183.

45 Ibid., 187.

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47 Freddy Knight is played by Michael Kenneth Williams, which forms a further link to American naturalism, since Williams earlier rose to prominence playing Omar Little in The Wire. J. D. Williams – Preston “Bodie” Broadus in The Wire – also has a significant role as a witness in The Night Of.

48 The Night Of, HBO, episode 8, “The Call of the Wild,” first broadcast 28 Aug. 2016.

49 Stephen Shapiro, “Foucault, Neoliberalism, Algorithmic Governmentality, and the Loss of Liberal Culture,” in Kennedy and Shapiro, Neoliberalism and Contemporary American Literature, 43–72, 44.

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52 Ibid., 253. Much of this dynamic is also due to steady defunding of social services at the same time as police numbers were increasing.

53 The nearest to such an occurrence is a pathologist who is persuaded by the DA to give interpretive testimony beneficial to the prosecution.

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55 Kecia Thompson's article on The Wire raises some interesting comparisons with The Night Of. Thompson, Kecia Driver, “‘Deserve Got Nothing to Do with It’: Black Urban Experience and the Naturalist Tradition in The Wire,” Studies in American Naturalism, 7, 1 (2012), 80–120CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Thompson notes an Althusserian dimension to The Wire, in that it “both represents and demonstrates the controlling influences of institutions: the legal system and the courtroom, the police and the law, local and state government, labor unions, the schools, prisons, and the mass media. The Wire is concerned with how these institutions watch us, shape us, frustrate us, and fail us.” Ibid., 82. This compares with the slightly more benign depiction of institutions in The Night Of, where, even though the system is constricting and discriminatory, justice is ultimately done, and most seem to be working within the system competently and to the best of their abilities.

56 Jennifer Gonnerman, “Three Years on Rikers without Trial,” New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2014, at www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/before-the-law. Gonnerman adds that in the Bronx in 2011, 165 cases went to trial, whereas in 3,991 cases the defendant pleaded guilty.

57 Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, broadcast 5 Nov. 2018.

58 Patricia Williams, “Language Is Part of the Machinery of Oppression – Just Look at How Black Deaths Are Described,” The Guardian, 10 June 2020, at www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/10/language-is-part-of-the-machinery-of-oppression-just-look-at-how-black-deaths-are-described.

59 Ibid.

60 Ibid.

61 Quoted in Jack Holmes, “This Is Not a Recipe for ‘Order’,” Esquire, 27 Aug. 2020, at www.esquire.com/news-politics/a33813049/tucker-carlson-kenosha-shooter-police-chief.

62 Quoted in David Smith, “Trump Fails to Denounce an Accused Killer – Which Comes as Little Surprise,” The Guardian, 1 Sept. 2020, at www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/31/trump-kyle-rittenhouse-press-briefing-kenosha.