Olie som misfittende relation: En nymaterialistisk analyse af det sorte gulds klæbrige karaktertræk i Inferno (2014)

Abstract

Oil as a misfitting relation. A new-material analysis of the black gold’s sticky character in Inferno (2014)The article examines Ida Marie Hede’s novel Inferno (2014) through the lens of new materialism’s theoretical interest in matter and materiality. By focussing on the actions of oil in the novel the article shows how seemingly ‘dead’ and finite non-human objects express liveliness. Oil influences, affects, creates, and disrupts, in a word acts, on its surroundings. And due to the global-political relations oil is entangled in, oil seems particularly inclined to produce a certain effect – a disabling misfit between ecosystems. Therefore, although the article pivots around Inferno, it also tries to connect this idea of non-humane liveliness to the socio-political reality of climate change. Perhaps the realisation of a global “planetan misfit” is a necessary first step towards an ontological reconceptualization: A move from substances to relations as the ontological base. Philosopher Rosi Braidotti proposes the term process-ontology. This article uses that concept as a guiding principle when it reads Inferno. What does oil do and what is done to oil – in and outside the novel?