Abstract
The rise of new materialisms in Western academia in the twenty-first century has prompted a critical reexamination of the linguistic paradigm that dominated the humanities and social sciences in the twentieth century. Proponents of new materialism contend that the potential of linguistic constructivism has largely been exhausted and that scholarly attention should now shift toward the ontology of material entities. From this perspective, the relationship between language (words) and matter (things) has been reimagined and reinterpreted. Drawing on speculative realism and agential realisms as key examples, this article examines how new materialisms critique linguistic theory and their limitations. Speculative realism emphasizes the autonomous reality and irreducible otherness of objects, challenging anthropocentric epistemologies that privilege linguistic representation. In contrast, agential realism foregrounds matter's agency and performativity, seeking to transcend the dichotomy between discourse and matter imposed by linguistic theory. By centering diffraction as a methodological paradigm, new materialisms reconstruct the dynamic relationship between “discourse and matter”, highlighting their co-constitutive performativity and addressing the limitations of linguistic theory. It is important to note that new materialisms do not categorically reject linguistic theory. Rather, they supplement it by reintroducing the previously ignored material dimension and broadening our understanding of the world.
Keywords
new materialisms, linguistic theory, speculative realism, agential realism, words and things
First Page
97
Last Page
107
Recommended Citation
Li, Lixing. 2025. "Can New Materialisms Transcend Linguistic Theory? An Analysis of the Relationship between Words and Things." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 45, (5): pp.97-107. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol45/iss5/13
