Responsibility of Possibility

Han Pimentel-Hayes

Little acknowledgement is given to the sociopolitical function of literary expressions of joy in revolutionary movements. Often, Marxist analysis in literature is primarily concerned with investigating the dynamics of power and oppression, which I maintain is a necessary undertaking, but when lacking joy, contributes heavily to national emotions of a nihilistic character. I argue that expressions of joy in literature simultaneously generate the imagination of joy in the future, and this is a component of revolution that is as necessary as the well-acknowledged criticism of oppressive structures. To assess the utility of joy in revolutionary literature, I first utilize positive psychology’s motivational dimensional model to evaluate the motivational value of the emotion of joy. I introduce the idea of conatus, a term coined by philosophers Hobbes and Spinoza, that asserts living beings will strive to continue to exist and improve themselves in order to do so. I evaluate the component of imagination within conatus and its potential to induce drive, thus determining the direct role of imagination in revolution. Combined with the generative qualities of the emotion of joy, the imagination of joy in literature proves particularly powerful given popular literature’s demonstrated ability to influence collective consciousness, which is a primary condition necessary for enacting revolution. Through my research, I seek to reconcile the scathing socioeconomic critique that characterizes Marxist analysis with the generative qualities of imagination and joy, which have been plainly separated in American scholarship.