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<p>Combining cognitive and object-oriented narratology, this article explores the significance of objects in the context of first-person narrative told by narrators who experience hallucinations or other altered mental states. I start by examining the cognitive-level propensities that underlie the distinction between subjective agency and the presumed passivity of matter. I then turn to three literary examples of how these propensities can be challenged in first-person narrative: Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale of horror “The Black Cat” (1843), H. P. Lovecraft’s novella <i>The Shadow Out of Time</i> (1936), and Julio Cortázar’s short story “Headache” (1951). The visions of the nonhuman staged by these narratives don’t objectify the narrators’ subjectivity but rather raise a radical challenge to dualistic conceptions of human mind and agency. I argue that these narratives use literary form and metaphor to open up the notion of agency in ways that resonate with posthumanist philosophy.</p>

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Disrupted agency, objects, and intimations of the posthuman in first-person narrative

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月5日

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  • Marco Caracciolo

摘要

Combining cognitive and object-oriented narratology, this article explores the significance of objects in the context of first-person narrative told by narrators who experience hallucinations or other altered mental states. I start by examining the cognitive-level propensities that underlie the distinction between subjective agency and the presumed passivity of matter. I then turn to three literary examples of how these propensities can be challenged in first-person narrative: Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale of horror “The Black Cat” (1843), H. P. Lovecraft’s novella The Shadow Out of Time (1936), and Julio Cortázar’s short story “Headache” (1951). The visions of the nonhuman staged by these narratives don’t objectify the narrators’ subjectivity but rather raise a radical challenge to dualistic conceptions of human mind and agency. I argue that these narratives use literary form and metaphor to open up the notion of agency in ways that resonate with posthumanist philosophy.