Abstract:This article examines the relation of posthumanism to ecocriticism. It contends that ecocriticism and posthumanism are parallel and potentially overlapping fields concerned with biological change and highlights the need for both discipline to address the idea of culture as defined by the binary of nature and culture. It argues that we must focus our philosophical, disciplinary challenge to the anthropocentric orthodoxies of the humanities and stresses the need for ecocriticism to expand our notion of “the worl… Show more
“…Post‐humanist theory combined with critical animal studies challenges the singular focus around human subjects, blurring boundaries between the human and non‐human, looking beyond human agency and exploring and developing the ‘other’ agency within the relationship (Adams & Donovan, ). Wolfe suggests the challenge of post‐humanism is when ‘the animal’ becomes simply another object of study (Feder, ). Indeed, Feder () supports this by stating: Post‐humanism may challenge the primacy of humanity, the idea of the Human as the all‐pervasive legacy of Enlightenment essentialism … It also signals a renewed interest in the biological world, ideas of human animality and our kinship with other creatures.…”
Section: Literature Reviewmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Wolfe suggests the challenge of post‐humanism is when ‘the animal’ becomes simply another object of study (Feder, ). Indeed, Feder () supports this by stating: Post‐humanism may challenge the primacy of humanity, the idea of the Human as the all‐pervasive legacy of Enlightenment essentialism … It also signals a renewed interest in the biological world, ideas of human animality and our kinship with other creatures. (p. 266)A post‐humanist approach to human–animal relations seeks to explore innovative ways of being part of society, with emphasis being placed on what Wilbert () refers to as the human–animal divide from one of oppositional dualism into networks of intricate dependencies focused around kinship.…”
Section: Literature Reviewmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…2 | LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 | Post-humanism and gendered human-equine relations Post-humanist theory combined with critical animal studies challenges the singular focus around human subjects, blurring boundaries between the human and non-human, looking beyond human agency and exploring and developing the 'other' agency within the relationship (Adams & Donovan, 1999). Wolfe suggests the challenge of posthumanism is when 'the animal' becomes simply another object of study (Feder, 2014). Indeed, Feder (2014) supports this by stating:…”
Due to changes in lifestyle and work patterns, education and values associated with wellbeing, non‐human animals are now incorporated into a range of human experiences and environments. This research specifically focuses on human–equine relations, examining blurred boundaries between therapeutic and recreational interspecies encounters. It is acknowledged that human–equine relations are often gendered and this research focuses mainly on women's narratives. Viewed through the post‐humanist lens, horses now form kinship and companionship roles, particularly for women, where relations have become mutually emotionally dependent as a result of interspecies communication and embodied encounters. Research utilizes feminist post‐humanist and cultural politics of emotion frameworks associate with the co‐agency on the co‐agency of animals. Embedded in the concept of equiscapes, or post‐humanist leisure spaces, research methods employ qualitative approaches, including in‐depth interviews, participant diaries and multispecies ethnography. Findings reveal how women make considerable investments in equine activities, which develops mutual welfare and wellbeing. Yet, despite these benefits, emotional and other expenditures are justified in work discourses to legitimize them as valuable to themselves, their families and their communities.
“…Post‐humanist theory combined with critical animal studies challenges the singular focus around human subjects, blurring boundaries between the human and non‐human, looking beyond human agency and exploring and developing the ‘other’ agency within the relationship (Adams & Donovan, ). Wolfe suggests the challenge of post‐humanism is when ‘the animal’ becomes simply another object of study (Feder, ). Indeed, Feder () supports this by stating: Post‐humanism may challenge the primacy of humanity, the idea of the Human as the all‐pervasive legacy of Enlightenment essentialism … It also signals a renewed interest in the biological world, ideas of human animality and our kinship with other creatures.…”
Section: Literature Reviewmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Wolfe suggests the challenge of post‐humanism is when ‘the animal’ becomes simply another object of study (Feder, ). Indeed, Feder () supports this by stating: Post‐humanism may challenge the primacy of humanity, the idea of the Human as the all‐pervasive legacy of Enlightenment essentialism … It also signals a renewed interest in the biological world, ideas of human animality and our kinship with other creatures. (p. 266)A post‐humanist approach to human–animal relations seeks to explore innovative ways of being part of society, with emphasis being placed on what Wilbert () refers to as the human–animal divide from one of oppositional dualism into networks of intricate dependencies focused around kinship.…”
Section: Literature Reviewmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…2 | LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 | Post-humanism and gendered human-equine relations Post-humanist theory combined with critical animal studies challenges the singular focus around human subjects, blurring boundaries between the human and non-human, looking beyond human agency and exploring and developing the 'other' agency within the relationship (Adams & Donovan, 1999). Wolfe suggests the challenge of posthumanism is when 'the animal' becomes simply another object of study (Feder, 2014). Indeed, Feder (2014) supports this by stating:…”
Due to changes in lifestyle and work patterns, education and values associated with wellbeing, non‐human animals are now incorporated into a range of human experiences and environments. This research specifically focuses on human–equine relations, examining blurred boundaries between therapeutic and recreational interspecies encounters. It is acknowledged that human–equine relations are often gendered and this research focuses mainly on women's narratives. Viewed through the post‐humanist lens, horses now form kinship and companionship roles, particularly for women, where relations have become mutually emotionally dependent as a result of interspecies communication and embodied encounters. Research utilizes feminist post‐humanist and cultural politics of emotion frameworks associate with the co‐agency on the co‐agency of animals. Embedded in the concept of equiscapes, or post‐humanist leisure spaces, research methods employ qualitative approaches, including in‐depth interviews, participant diaries and multispecies ethnography. Findings reveal how women make considerable investments in equine activities, which develops mutual welfare and wellbeing. Yet, despite these benefits, emotional and other expenditures are justified in work discourses to legitimize them as valuable to themselves, their families and their communities.
“…The Cartesian tradition draws a clear-cut divide between incorporeal subjectivity and the material body. 18 To Helena Feder, the "human of humanism, the free-floating Cartesian mind" is a mere "fantasy" 19 that does not account for the materiality of existence. Yet the Cartesian world view is still deeply embedded in contemporary society, as Baume repeatedly shows by insisting on Frankie's reluctance to identify with her own body.…”
It has been argued that many contemporary writers display growing levels of ecological awareness in their writing and that the depiction of nature in Irish literature is changing. This is certainly true of Sara Baume's 2017 novel A Line Made by Walking, which takes place in the Irish countryside and is deeply concerned with the non-human. This article draws upon new materialist and ecocritical theory (Karen Barad, Jane Bennett, Stacy Alaimo and others) to examine Baume's treatment of the non-human landscape in the novel. The mind / matter, human / nature dualisms are among the novel's core concerns. Baume emphasises the protagonist's inability to identify with her body and depicts her feelings of alienation from non-human beings in vivid detail. This article highlights how, on a symbolic level, the author undermines these dualisms by offering a poetic depiction of the subtle connections and entanglements that bind the character's body to the non-human landscape. Baume's writing focuses on ordinary processes of exchange between human and non-human bodies, highlighting the crucial -albeit unnoticed -material connections that underpin the world we live in.
“…A humán kultúra decentrálását mutatjaHaraway (2007Haraway ( , 2016 munkássága, melyben új nyelvvel is próbálkozik, többek közt a naturecultures (természetkultúrák), multispecies muddles (többfajú sokaság) és a tentacular thinking (tapogatózó gondolkodás) kifejezések bevezetésével. HelenaFeder (2013) az állati kultúrákat vizsgálva, újradefiniálja a kultúrát mint a társadalmi közvetítésen és tanuláson keresztül megjelenő problémamegoldás közegét, és felvázolja egy "többfajú multikulturalizmus" (multispecies multiculturalism) koncepcióját. A poszthumán performativitás fogalmának felépítésével KarenBarad (2003) átfogalmazza az ágencia koncepcióját, relácionális ontológiájában kiterjesztve azt a nem-humán világra.15 Chakrabarty korábbi, 2009-ben publikált tanulmányát (melyet 2010-ben megjelent magyar fordításában idézek) a The Climate of History in a Planetary Age (2021) című könyvéhez hozzáigazítva újraközli, annak első fejezeteként.16 Az emberiségre való hivatkozás fordulópontot jelent Chakrabarty munkásságában: korábbi kutatásait és publikációit posztokoloniális, szubaltern, kisebbségi jogi elméletek és identitásnarratívák diszkurzusai határozták meg, melyek módszeresen igyekeztek kerülni totalizáló kifejezéseket, mint az ember vagy emberiség.…”
Tanulmányomban – a szerző bemutatását és kutatási területének felvázolását követően – Simard visszaemlékezésének narratív dinamikáját olyan szövegként értelmezem, amely a kreatív tényirodalomnak nevezett retorikai térben, több kifejezési forma metszéspontjában, női fejlődéstörténetbe ágyazódó memoárként konstruálódik. Simard narratíváját eképpen – magyar szakirodalmi terminussal élve – „kisparaszti szálalógazdálkodást” folytató, kanadai telepes családból származó kislány tudósnővé formálódásának rögzített nézőpontú, sorsesemények által kikényszerített helyesbítések történeteként olvasom. Elemzésemben igyekszem rávilágítani arra, hogy miként viszonyul a memoár edőökológus elbeszélője a számára rendelkezésre álló nyelvhez, mellyel a humán világ és a nem-humán világ közti kontaktzóna mikorrhizás jelentőségéről nagyközönségéhez szólni kíván. Végül a memoár látszólag „visszaantropomorfizáló” anyafa metaforáját és annak vélt esszencializmusát veszem szemügyre a poszthumanizmus és az ökofeminizmus szakirodalmi kontextusában.
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