No Magic in Being Lost”
Conservative Sentiment in Ling Ma’s Severance
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12948362 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ingo Peters (Chulalongkorn University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 61-81 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American, British and Canadian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1841-1487 • E-ISSN: 1841-964X |
| Publisher | De Gruyter Open (PUBLISHER • PL) |
| DOI | 10.2478/abcsj-2024-0026 |
| OpenAlex | W4405888418 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
Ling Ma’s post-apocalyptic novel Severance (2018), like many examples of the genre, has generally been interpreted as a progressive work. This essay contends, however, that it expresses a conservative disposition as English philosopher Michael Oakeshott defined it, with clear preferences for the familiar over the unknown and a disdain for utopias. A close reading of Severance through the lens of Oakeshott’s philosophy reveals that change is shown as negative, since both the world after a deadly pandemic strikes and pre-2010 New York are portrayed as diminished by disruption – and as devoid of a sense of adventure that might otherwise turn disruption interesting. Furthermore, the novel warns of ideology and teleology: the apocalypse remains unexplained and is not used to communicate criticism or lessons, while the progressive and totalitarian characters that aim to impose a grand vision on the rest are ridiculed, and the personal and the private appear as tantamount. Finally, laissez-faire capitalism and the neo-liberal state are criticized not so much for their inherent exploitation, but for forcing a lifestyle onto people that is without alternative, that they did not choose, that (through the hegemony of work) leads to a profanation of life, and that causes an erosion of tradition
Art · Astronomy · Economics · Labour economics · MAGIC (telescope · Physics · Severance · Chinese history and philosophy · Japanese History and Culture · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
Contemporary Women’s Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
Conservatives Against Capitalism
Imperialist Nostalgia and Untranslatable Affect in Ling Ma's Severance
Misogyny Survives the Apocalypse
Naturalist Compulsion, Racial Divides, and the Time-Loop Zombie
Rationalism and tradition
Michael Oakeshott and the conversation of modern political thought
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |