ABSTRACT This article aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of John Steinbeck’s early and largely neglected novel To a God Unknown (1933) by focusing on its assimilation of contemporary organicist philosophy. Most scholars agree that the central drama of the novel hinges on the opposition between nature and society, or the polarized attitudes of connection and control derived from this divide. They differ strongly, however, in their interpretation of the trajectory of the protagonist, who commits suicide to save his parched land during a long drought. While some critics suggest that the protagonist’s suicide constitutes a sacrificial act that symbolizes his close bond with nature, others read his death as a futile act that ultimately reveals misguided settler attitudes. Foregrounding Steinbeck’s engagement with the bio-philosophies that he encountered during his formative years in California, this article offers a reading that reconciles these opposed positions. Pointing attention to Steinbeck’s strong indebtedness to the work of zoologist Carl Emerson Ritter, who tried to derive a progressive political program rooted in biological science, I argue that To a God Unknown dramatizes the inevitable interpenetration – rather than the polarity – of society and natural processes. I conclude by reflecting on the ways the novel might illuminate what Roberto Esposito has referred to as “affirmative” biopolitics, biopolitics geared toward the expansion of the commons, in the framework of Anthropocene studies today.
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