Book Chapters by Christopher N Gamble
Figures of Entanglement: Diffractive Readings of Barad, New Materialism, and Rhetorical Theory and Criticism, 2022
The Communication Inquiry and Theory Experience, 2020
The primary aim of this chapter is to tell the story of how modern scholarship has increasingly l... more The primary aim of this chapter is to tell the story of how modern scholarship has increasingly learned to stop worrying and love rhetorical ways of knowing. More specifically, and against the popular view that portrays knowledge and rhetoric as fundamentally incompatible, we show how modern scholarship has developed an understanding of rhetoric that treats human (and, increasingly, also nonhuman) meaning and communication as deeply contextual, contingent, and influenced by power-laden processes that are social, cultural, and historical.
The Handbook of Social Research Ethics, 2009
Journal Articles by Christopher N Gamble
Rhizomes, 2020
The Euro-Western tradition has long considered matter to be essentially non-relational, passive a... more The Euro-Western tradition has long considered matter to be essentially non-relational, passive and mechanical. Matter, that is, is thought to consist of elementary particles that remain internally unchanged while moving inside of, or against, an equally unchanging or fixed background of space, time, or both. Consequently, matter's behavior has been seen as obeying-either fully or probabilistically-preexisting and invariant natural laws. In our paper, we first take a brief tour through three major traditions of Western materialism in order to demonstrate how this basic picture has remained remarkably stable up to the present. We then argue that recent physics research and quantum gravity theorizing about black holes provide an unprecedented opportunity to revolutionize our understanding of matter by understanding it as inherently relational, indeterminate, and generative. Our aim in doing so is to show that black hole physics has enormous interdisciplinary consequences for the history, philosophy, and science of materialists. I. The History of Materialism Classical Mechanics. The first major Euro-Western tradition of materialism was Greek atomism. As is well known, Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus all taught that all things-from the biggest stars to the smallest insects or speck of dirt-are formed by the collisions, compositions, and decompositions of tiny, discrete, and indivisible "atoms" careening perpetually through a vast spatial void. Eternal and unchanging, the atoms' only differentiating attributes were their varying shapes and sizes, which enabled them to join together into countless combinations that resulted in the full scope and diversity of the perceptible world at large. For Leucippus and Democritus, these fundamental particles moved only along unique predetermined trajectories, whereas in Epicurus they occasionally swerved spontaneously onto others. In finding reality to have a fundamentally closed, immutable nature, however, both accounts nevertheless maintained the very same mechanistic conception of matter and its relationship to void or space. For the atoms, that immutability results in a rather profound irony. Ostensibly, those constituent elements produce all of perceptible reality. Nevertheless, the full range of possible atomic compounds-and hence, of resulting sensible objects-preexists any compound's realization and so remains just as eternally fixed and unchanging as the atoms own pre-given shapes and sizes. Certain combinations invariably result in lead, for example, whereas [1] others' result just as invariably in iron. Accordingly, then, whether they were capable of swerving or not, the atoms exerted zero creative agency over the character of their own productions. Instead, they remained essentially non-generative, non-relational vessels that "create" merely by passively realizing preexisting possibilities. A similar situation obtains in relation to the immutable (non-)nature of what the atomists called "void." An infinite background emptiness that persists to a greater or lesser extent in (or as) the space between atoms, void also in
Angelaki Journal of the Theoretical Humanities , 2019
This paper argues that there is currently no single definition of new materialism but at least th... more This paper argues that there is currently no single definition of new materialism but at least three distinct and partly incompatible trajectories. All three of these trajectories share at least one common theoretical commitment: to problematize the anthropocentric and constructivist orientations of most twentieth-century theory in a way that encourages closer attention to the sciences by the humanities.
This paper emerges from our desire to offer a response to criticisms but not in order to defend new materialism in general. Instead, we hope to help redirect each arrow of critique toward its proper target, and on this basis to advocate for the approach we call “performative” or “pedetic” new materialism.
Our introduction proceeds in three main sections. In the first section,
we recount rhetoric’s—alw... more Our introduction proceeds in three main sections. In the first section,
we recount rhetoric’s—always entangled—relationship with its past in order to highlight its origins in a metaphysics that divides meaning from matter according to a logic of supplementarity. We then turn to a brief discussion of contemporary scholarship that attempts to overcome that logic by identifying “third terms” that move us in the direction of an entangled understanding of rhetoric. In the second section, we build on this work in an explicitly materialist direction. Specifically, we offer a reading of how standard and new rhetorical materialisms identify “figures of entanglement” that illuminate increasing aspects of the generativity and dynamism of matter and rhetoric. In doing so, we also consider the points of overlap and divergence between these materialist areas of scholarship. Given the space limitations of this introduction, our discussion of this work is highly selective and partial (in both senses) and is intended as only one of several possible means of considering Barad’s intervention into rhetoric and communication studies. In the third section, we explore in greater detail the rhetorical implications of Barad’s intra-active account of materialism. In doing so, we provide a brief distillation of how we understand key aspects of the quantum physics basis for Barad’s theory of diffraction that, we argue, enables a rethinking of rhetoric, ontology and politics in irreducibly material terms. We conclude the introduction with a discussion of the papers in this issue and by acknowledging key entanglements that made this special issue possible.
Guest-Edited Special Issues by Christopher N Gamble
Our hope for this special issue on “Figures of Entanglement” is to promote a rich and fruitful co... more Our hope for this special issue on “Figures of Entanglement” is to promote a rich and fruitful conversation on new materialism in rhetoric
and communication studies. We do so by organizing that conversation around what we view as the profoundly compelling and provocative notion of “entanglement” as presented by Karen Barad in her 2007 tour de force book, Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. In the broadest terms, and as elegantly expressed in the epigraph, Barad’s notion of entanglement refers to a thoroughly relational account of ontology in which entities never preexist as discrete, atomic individuals with determinate boundaries that then combine or interact with other preexisting individuals. Rather, as the quantum experiments that prompt this account demonstrate, not even atoms are “atomic” entities prior to their measurement or observation, but emerge as either particles or waves only intra-actively, that is, as part of mutually exclusive techno-scientific practices and discourses. Likewise, those practices and discourses do not fully precede their entanglement with atomic (or subatomic) agencies. From this posthumanist perspective, then, there is no outside of matter just as there is no outside of meaning, and thus ontology consists of “a multitude of entangled performances of the world’s worlding itself.”
To be entangled is not simply to be intertwined with another, as in the joining of separate entit... more To be entangled is not simply to be intertwined with another, as in the joining of separate entities, but to lack an independent, self--contained existence. Existence is not an individual affair. Individuals do not preexist their interactions; rather, individuals emerge through and as part of their entangled intra--relating." --Karen Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway, p. ix "As existing scholarship tells us from many different disciplinary sites and, indeed, as everyday language practices also confirm, vivid links, whether live or long--standing, continue to be drawn between immigrants, people of color, laborers and working--class subjects, colonial subjects, women, queer subjects, disabled people, and animals, meaning, not the class of creatures that includes humans but quite the converse, the class against which the (often rational) human with inviolate and full subjectivity is defined." --Mel Chen, Animacies, p. 95
Drafts by Christopher N Gamble
Translations by Christopher N Gamble
World Philosophy , 2024
This is a Chinese translation of the article "What is New Materialism?"
(Des)troços Journal: revista de pensamento radical v. 2 n. 2, 2021
This is a Portuguese translation of "What is New Materialism?"
Papers by Christopher N Gamble
Angelaki, 2019
Abstract New materialism is one of the most important emerging trends in the humanities and socia... more Abstract New materialism is one of the most important emerging trends in the humanities and social sciences, but it is also one of the least understood. This is because, as a term of ongoing contestation, it currently has no single definition. The novel contribution of this article is to offer a critical introduction to new materialism that distinguishes between three commonly conflated strands and to argue for what we find to be the most promising and novel of the three directions. The paper unfolds in four parts: First, it illuminates more precisely just what is “new” about new materialism by contrasting it with “old” materialism. Second, it clarifies how failed materialism is an intermediary theory between old and new materialisms. Third, it untangles and compares three main directions in new materialism. Fourth, it ultimately argues in favor of the third direction.
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Book Chapters by Christopher N Gamble
Journal Articles by Christopher N Gamble
This paper emerges from our desire to offer a response to criticisms but not in order to defend new materialism in general. Instead, we hope to help redirect each arrow of critique toward its proper target, and on this basis to advocate for the approach we call “performative” or “pedetic” new materialism.
we recount rhetoric’s—always entangled—relationship with its past in order to highlight its origins in a metaphysics that divides meaning from matter according to a logic of supplementarity. We then turn to a brief discussion of contemporary scholarship that attempts to overcome that logic by identifying “third terms” that move us in the direction of an entangled understanding of rhetoric. In the second section, we build on this work in an explicitly materialist direction. Specifically, we offer a reading of how standard and new rhetorical materialisms identify “figures of entanglement” that illuminate increasing aspects of the generativity and dynamism of matter and rhetoric. In doing so, we also consider the points of overlap and divergence between these materialist areas of scholarship. Given the space limitations of this introduction, our discussion of this work is highly selective and partial (in both senses) and is intended as only one of several possible means of considering Barad’s intervention into rhetoric and communication studies. In the third section, we explore in greater detail the rhetorical implications of Barad’s intra-active account of materialism. In doing so, we provide a brief distillation of how we understand key aspects of the quantum physics basis for Barad’s theory of diffraction that, we argue, enables a rethinking of rhetoric, ontology and politics in irreducibly material terms. We conclude the introduction with a discussion of the papers in this issue and by acknowledging key entanglements that made this special issue possible.
Guest-Edited Special Issues by Christopher N Gamble
and communication studies. We do so by organizing that conversation around what we view as the profoundly compelling and provocative notion of “entanglement” as presented by Karen Barad in her 2007 tour de force book, Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. In the broadest terms, and as elegantly expressed in the epigraph, Barad’s notion of entanglement refers to a thoroughly relational account of ontology in which entities never preexist as discrete, atomic individuals with determinate boundaries that then combine or interact with other preexisting individuals. Rather, as the quantum experiments that prompt this account demonstrate, not even atoms are “atomic” entities prior to their measurement or observation, but emerge as either particles or waves only intra-actively, that is, as part of mutually exclusive techno-scientific practices and discourses. Likewise, those practices and discourses do not fully precede their entanglement with atomic (or subatomic) agencies. From this posthumanist perspective, then, there is no outside of matter just as there is no outside of meaning, and thus ontology consists of “a multitude of entangled performances of the world’s worlding itself.”
Drafts by Christopher N Gamble
Translations by Christopher N Gamble
Papers by Christopher N Gamble
This paper emerges from our desire to offer a response to criticisms but not in order to defend new materialism in general. Instead, we hope to help redirect each arrow of critique toward its proper target, and on this basis to advocate for the approach we call “performative” or “pedetic” new materialism.
we recount rhetoric’s—always entangled—relationship with its past in order to highlight its origins in a metaphysics that divides meaning from matter according to a logic of supplementarity. We then turn to a brief discussion of contemporary scholarship that attempts to overcome that logic by identifying “third terms” that move us in the direction of an entangled understanding of rhetoric. In the second section, we build on this work in an explicitly materialist direction. Specifically, we offer a reading of how standard and new rhetorical materialisms identify “figures of entanglement” that illuminate increasing aspects of the generativity and dynamism of matter and rhetoric. In doing so, we also consider the points of overlap and divergence between these materialist areas of scholarship. Given the space limitations of this introduction, our discussion of this work is highly selective and partial (in both senses) and is intended as only one of several possible means of considering Barad’s intervention into rhetoric and communication studies. In the third section, we explore in greater detail the rhetorical implications of Barad’s intra-active account of materialism. In doing so, we provide a brief distillation of how we understand key aspects of the quantum physics basis for Barad’s theory of diffraction that, we argue, enables a rethinking of rhetoric, ontology and politics in irreducibly material terms. We conclude the introduction with a discussion of the papers in this issue and by acknowledging key entanglements that made this special issue possible.
and communication studies. We do so by organizing that conversation around what we view as the profoundly compelling and provocative notion of “entanglement” as presented by Karen Barad in her 2007 tour de force book, Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. In the broadest terms, and as elegantly expressed in the epigraph, Barad’s notion of entanglement refers to a thoroughly relational account of ontology in which entities never preexist as discrete, atomic individuals with determinate boundaries that then combine or interact with other preexisting individuals. Rather, as the quantum experiments that prompt this account demonstrate, not even atoms are “atomic” entities prior to their measurement or observation, but emerge as either particles or waves only intra-actively, that is, as part of mutually exclusive techno-scientific practices and discourses. Likewise, those practices and discourses do not fully precede their entanglement with atomic (or subatomic) agencies. From this posthumanist perspective, then, there is no outside of matter just as there is no outside of meaning, and thus ontology consists of “a multitude of entangled performances of the world’s worlding itself.”