Full Description
Through the burgeoning fields of Posthumanities and Environmental Humanities, this edition examines the changing conception of human subjectivity, agency, and citizenship as shaped by the dynamic interplays between nature, technology, science, and culture. The proposed 'symbiotic turn', (the awareness of the multitude of interactions and mutual interdependencies among humans, non-humans and their environment) aspires to explore the complex recompositions of the "human" in the 21st century. By organizing and promoting interdisciplinary dialogue at multiple levels, both in theory and practice, Symbiotic Posthumanist Ecologies is suggested as a new narrative about the biosphere and technosphere, which is embodied literarily, philosophically, and artistically.
The contributions to this volume emphasize interactive, symbiotic relationships between species, disrupting both anthropocentric and biocentric paradigms and positioning symbiosis as the planet's vital ecological process. Offering a range of ecocritical and philosophical perspectives, this book provides a valuable introduction to major branches of the environmental humanities such as posthumanism and new materialism but also new directions in Gaia theory, neocybernetics and AI, Anthropocene studies, and other contested and cutting-edge topics. What emerges most prominently from these chapters, for me, is the case for decentering humanity in the discussion of ecological topics, while still recognizing powerful impact of human technologies. I find the combination of textual criticism and critical theory to be a graceful pairing in this book, and the essays are well written and accessible.
(Scott Slovic, Oregon Research Institute, coeditor of «Nature and Literary Studies»)
Contents
Contents -
Pramod K. Nayar Looking through the Symbiotic Lens - Francesca Ferrando "We Are The Earth": Posthumanist Realizations in the Era of the Anthropocene - Peggy Karpouzou and Nikoleta Zampaki Introduction: Towards a Symbiosis of Posthumanism and Environmental Humanities or Paving Narratives for the Symbiocene
PART I Framing the Symbiotic Posthumanist Ecologies - Roberto Marchesini Somatizing Alterity: Technology and Hybridization in the Post- Human Era - Teresa Heffernan Rethinking "Queer Kin Groups": Cyborgs, Animals, and Machines - Mieke Bal How to Say It? Symbiosis as Inter- Ship - Peggy Karpouzou Symbiotic Citizenship in Posthuman Urban Ecosystems: Smart Biocities
in Speculative Fiction
PART II Symbiotic Posthumanist Ecologies in Literature and Art - Bruce Clarke Cracking Open: Ecological Communication in Richard Powers' The Overstory - Irene Sanz Alonso Posthuman Subjects in Rosa Montero's Los tiempos del odio - Aleksandra Łukaszewicz Cyber body as Medium of Art. The Case of Neil Harbisson and Moon Ribas - Dimitris Angelatos Folded Tactility: Tracing Metabolic Artistic Practices in Contemporary Sculpture - David Fancy Geomancy vs Technomancy: Resonance, Divination and Gilbert Simondon's Thought
PART III Symbiotic Posthumanist Ecologies in Continental Philosophy - Nicole Anderson
Animal- Human Differences: The Deconstructive Force of Posthumanism - Fred Evans Deleuzian Cosmopolitanism: From the Capitalist Axiomatic to the "Chaosmocene" - Glen A. Mazis A Posthumanist Truly Back to the Things Themselves: Merleau- Ponty's
Embodied Phenomenology and Literary Language - Cassandra Falke Eco- Phenomenology in the Dark - Avital Ronell Nietzsche Apologizes for the Weather: A Storm Chaser's Report - Notes on Contributors - Index
