Scenes of Trash

Aesthetic Order and Political Effects of Garbage in the Home

Abstract

The article discusses the role that non-humans and simple everyday objects play in political matters. It relates ideas of political theory to recent work in discard studies by asking how certain narratives and cultural appropriations of waste shape the way that political ideas are articulated. The paper employs Jacques Rancière’s understanding of politics as a distribution of the sensible with respect to acts of disposing of waste in the home. At issue are politically relevant distinctions such as those between private matters and public concerns, visible and invisible spheres of participation, clean and dirty work. The article explores how, on the one hand, visions of modernity and the future are expressed through the meaning of waste and how trash, on the other hand, is articulated in political terms. The approach is interdisciplinary, ranging from political philosophy and feminist thought to cultural theory, with a specific interest in phenomena that address politically relevant issues through the language and aesthetics of waste.