Containing and Unleashing the Shock of the Modern in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," "A Natural History of the Dead," and "A Way You'll Never Be"

This article isolates three qualities of subjectivity occurring in three stories by Ernest Hemingway, from the existential self of "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," to the historical consciousness of "A Natural History of the Dead," to the radical subject of becoming of "A Way You'll Never Be." It tracks a spectrum of possible responses to the shock of the modern and argues that "A Way You'll Never Be," imagining a subjectivity akin to post-humanism, offers a unique vision of the self as something with no essential anchoring points.