Animal-human differences: the deconstructive force of posthumanism

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    Abstract

    While Posthumanism is a term that arguably assumes fluid, fragmented, flexible subjectivities that expose the constructed and anthropocentric boundaries between human and nonhuman, this chapter attempts to demonstrate the various ways the term contributes to solidifying the boundaries with which it wants to break. More than this, the chapter also argues that increasingly, some posthumanists of varying stripes, are bypassing its deconstructive force by reducing deconstruction to a method, analysis, and application. As I argue in this chapter, the critical force of deconstruction works to undermine our anthropocentrism that founds our current and historical notions of what it means to be human, by radicalizing, and holding accountable, the differences between the human and nonhuman. It is for this reason that the chapter provides an example by way of a discussion of a true long- term relationship between a human (myself) and a wild animal; one in which anthropocentric boundaries are challenged (while still retaining difference).
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationSymbiotic posthumanist ecologies in Western literature, philosophy and art
    Subtitle of host publicationtowards theory and practice
    EditorsPeggy Karpouzou, Nikoleta Zampaki
    Place of PublicationBerlin ; Bern ; Bruxelles ; New York ; Oxford ; Warszawa ; Wien
    PublisherPeter Lang Publishing Group
    Pages211-225
    Number of pages15
    ISBN (Electronic)9783631882924
    ISBN (Print)9783631845011, 9783631882917
    Publication statusPublished - 2023

    Publication series

    NameStudies in Literature, Culture, and the Enviroment
    PublisherPeter Lang
    Volume11

    Bibliographical note

    Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

    Keywords

    • Animals
    • Derrida, Jacques
    • Possum
    • Ecology
    • Posthumanism
    • Deconstruction

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