Discarded Selves: Obsolescence in the Age of Presentism

Amid the rise of seductive, present-tense goods, the obsolete names what the present cannot assimilate: a forgotten one-hit-wonder, a now-unacceptable remark, or a teenage memory too awkward to reclaim.Yet it is precisely through these encounters with obsolete attachments that a different experience of time becomes possible.Discarded Selves shows that obsolescence is not only a condition imposed on objects and media but a temporal and affective logic internalized within the self.In cultures driven by disposability and the imperative to remain up-to-date, we continually shed former attachments, affects, and versions of ourselves.But these discarded selves persist: they return as intimate, time-stamped remnants that unsettle the fantasy of a seamless present. Through close readings across literature, film, digital culture, and everyday practices - from decluttering and ragpicking to the disquieting experience of unexpectedly running into an ex or confronting long-forgotten diary entries