“His Face Looked Bland, Almost Bored, like That of a Virtuoso Practicing Scales”: Emotional Self-Management and Neoliberal Idealizations in Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding

This article examines how idealization and emotional self-management are used in Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding (2011) to cultivate personal emotions that serve neoliberal logics of self-monitoring and systemic preservation. Firstly, I show that Mike Schwartz, the novel’s deuteragonist, embodies an ideology of idealization and self-sacrifice as tools for personal and collective growth. Next, I highlight that Harbach’s communitarian vision leads to personal (albeit not financial) gain through a strategy of moderate rewards. Then, I investigate how the humanities are objectified as a currency of emotional self- investment, extending Harbach’s neoliberal vision to the novel as a form. Finally, I demonstrate that objectification is extended to the novel’s athlete, Henry Skrimshander, whose mindless and kinesthetic talent effaces all problematic aspects of contemporary sports, privilege, and campus life.