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1	Information Overload: Reading Information-as-Waste in Contemporary Canadian Literature Speranza, Monica 29 June 2021 (has links) This thesis investigates three contemporary Canadian texts— Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being, Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, and Rita Wong’s forage—that treat information as an object that can be wasted and recuperated. Using information theory and a new sub-field of critical waste theory called “Discard Studies,” I explore how the authors studied in this thesis place these two lines of thought alongside one another to examine how the concept of recycling information challenges the material, cultural, and ideological structures that distance humans from their waste. Specifically, I read the event of recycling as an interruptive act that triggers a reassessment of the (im)material connections that tether humans to their waste, vast (inter)national networks of exchange, and environmental crises related to our garbage. Canadian Literature Ecocriticism Waste Theory Discard Studies New Materialism Information Theory Ruth Ozeki Margaret Atwood Rita Wong Repurposing Recycling Materiality Garbage N. Katherine Hayles Canadian Fiction Canadian Poetry Posthuman