Object

This chapter focuses on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, using theories of quantum entanglement to reconstitute the subject/object divide through readings of oceanic waste. Moving through analyses of texts including Ruth Ozeki’s novel A Tale for the Time Being (2013), Ken Liu’s flash fiction story “Build-A-Dolly” (2013), and Ozeki’s short story “Immortal” (2014), the chapter foregrounds the relationships between humans, the environment, and history to show how human subjectivity is formed against the racialized detritus of objects. The chapter first traces transpacific entanglements in the Garbage Patch beyond anthropocentric and national boundaries before turning to an exploration of plastic as a substance that highlights disposability and assimilation as two logics of Asian American racial form. The chapter shows how Asian American literature and criticism constitute a distinct and salient discursive field even in the posthuman landscape of the Anthropocene.