Decay’s Dying: Fear, Apprehension and Approach

The thesis proposes a novel theory of ‘literary decayedness’ as a mode of writing suited to the contemporary conditions of material and existential exhaustion in the twenty-first century. I develop a conceptual framework through the work of Iranian philosopher Reza Negarestani and French writer Maurice Blanchot, adapting it into a formal methodology through which I extract insights and figures from the fiction of Joy Williams, thereby further informing my own creative practice.