Imagining the End, Experiencing the Beginning: Capitalist Critique in Ling Ma’s Severance

Abstract: Contemporary American society insists that capitalism is the key to happiness. Yet, Ling Ma’s novel Severance makes a critical argument against this insistence, instead arguing that rejection of a capitalist framework is, perhaps, how one succeeds beyond the measure of the oppressive systems hierarchized by American culture. Using Sara Ahmed’s The Promise of Happiness , this article examines how Candace, the novel’s protagonist, refuses to compromise her freedom to the whims of capitalist corporations and post-apocalyptic cult leaders. Through Severance ’s nonlinear storytelling, Ma takes readers through the unhappy progression of Candace’s internalized understanding of herself and the world around her—an understanding that develops amid an ongoing zombifying pandemic. Candace may be at risk of developing a fungal infection that leaves her in a zombified state, but the greater risks present themselves through the exploitative nature of America’s white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.