Thing theory

Thing theory is a branch of critical theory that focuses on human–object interactions in literature and culture. It borrows from Heidegger's distinction between objects and things, which posits that an object becomes a thing when it can no longer serve its common function.[1] The Thing in Thing Theory is conceptually like Jacques Lacan's Real; Felluga states that it is influenced by Actor-network theory and the work of Bruno Latour.[2]

For Bill Brown, objects are items for which subjects have a known and clear sense of place, use and role.[3] Things, on the other hand, manifest themselves once they interact with our bodies unexpectedly, break down, malfunction, shed their encoded social values, or elude our understanding.[3] When one encounters an object which breaks outside of its expected, recognizable use, it causes a moment of judgement, which in turn causes a historical or narrative reconfiguration between the subject and the object which Brown refers to as thingness.[3] The theory was largely created by Bill Brown, who edited a special issue of Critical Inquiry on it in 2001[4] and published a monograph on the subject entitled A Sense of Things.[5]

As Brown writes in his essay "Thing Theory":

We begin to confront the thingness of objects when they stop working for us: when the drill breaks, when the car stalls, when the window gets filthy, when their flow within the circuits of production and distribution, consumption and exhibition, has been arrested, however momentarily. The story of objects asserting themselves as things, then, is the story of a changed relationship to the human subject and thus the story of how the thing really names less an object than a particular subject-object relation.[5] As they circulate through our lives, we look through objects (to see what they disclose about history, society, nature, or culture - above all, what they disclose about us), but we only catch a glimpse of things.

Thingness can also extend to close interactions with the subject's body. Brown points to encounters like "cut[ing] your finger on a sheet of paper" or "trip[ping] over some toy" to argue that we are "caught up in things" and the "body is a thing among things."[3]

  1. ^ Heidegger, Martin (1971). "The Thing" (PDF). Poetry, Language, Thought: 163–184.
  2. ^ Felluga, Dino Franco (2015). Critical Theory: Key Concepts. Routledge. pp. 313–314. ISBN 978-0-415-69565-7. The Thing in this sense is close to Jacques Lacan's understanding of the Real, as Brown himself suggests (5). [...] Thing Theory is also influenced by Actor-Network Theory, especially the work of Bruno Latour.
  3. ^ a b c d Brown, Bill (2001). "Thing Theory" (PDF). Critical Inquiry. 28 (1): 1–16 – via Harvard University.
  4. ^ "Things". University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 20 Oct 2014.
  5. ^ a b Brown, B. (2004) A Sense of Things. University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 20 Oct 2014.