Dissertation Thoughts

Summary –

How can the Crow (creature crow and symbolic crow) be used as a translator for our current epoch of climate fear and nihilism, and act as a guide or teacher to go about cultivating an ongoing co-existence extending beyond the daunting zeitgeist of now into a joyful* future?

*An issue dwells in the uncertainty, climate fear and thus future anxiety. The allure of climate nihilism is so inextricably tied up with crow, the relationship with and perception as parasites, their deep black colour, the ‘harbinger of death’ mythology, their grating “caw caw”-ing etc.

Uncertainty lurks too in the unsteady footing of the crow as he comes to land on the rooftop. However, this unsteady footing, (ungrounding, unworlding) is exactly what is needed to truly bring about change. Mythological liminality of crow, ideas of slipping between worlds, acting as guides or harbingers are all shadows of the bleak, fearful crow being the one to re-world, there is no light without dark, so we need a little terror to bring about change.

(These ideas are clearly situated within the realm of Timothy Morton and Donna Haraway, whom I am both using as key authors for guidance and inspiration for this dissertation; however, I also hope to incorporate some Michel Serres within The Parasite, Jane Bennett in Vibrant Matter, Isabelle Stengers in Too Many Books to Mention and Mark Fisher with his writing around The Weird and the Eerie.)

Herein Lies the Rub –

I thought previously I had three areas in which I could focus the writing on, I could solely study the animist ontology of crow, the mythology, or come at it from a OOO standpoint. However, through my reading that I have undertaken within the break between semester 2 and 3 (specifically the writing of Haraway), I understand that these things can all be carefully intertwined, to form a cohesive narrative, if done in such a way that the line of inquiry is clearly and confidently steered by me. I must be careful to not be over ambitious, and make sure I am delving deep enough. The OOO standpoint might prove too much to go into, which is okay in the regard that I would prefer to lean on the female theorists more this semester, and less on Morton. I shall however be keeping with Morton's motif of the ‘loop’ (mobius loop, looping compulsion to repeat) and his theory around hyperobjects, as these two concepts can allow me to talk about OOO without needing to feature it as a primary vein of research. 

Writing style –

In my Creative and Critical Writing module essay, and to a certain extent my Thinking Across Fields module essay, I developed a writing style which illustrated the themes I was writing about and with. I would like to use this style, which was heavily influenced by the writing of Nicholas Royle, in my dissertation. Donna Haraway, other philosophers and creatives[1] write in similarly unique ways to urge the reader into coming round to a certain way of thinking, or at least understanding the text. There is a lot of scope and potential here for exciting performative aspects, such as writing with the crow/giving the crow a voice, including bracketed pieces of writing to illustrate or elaborate, poetic elements, fictitious elements etc. 

[1] http://www.iamnotapieceofmeat.com/an-anatomy-act/