Bodies: A Digital Companion Main Menu Why the Body? an introduction to the digital companion Embodiment key concept Cultural Norm key concept Bodily Difference key concept Stigma key concept Intersectionality key concept Body Image Dr. Kristin Novotny, Professor COR 240-04/05 Spectral and Invisible Bodies Dr. Veruska Cantelli, Assistant Professor Visibility / Invisibility / Hypervisibility Alice Neiley, Adjunct Professor Radical Awakening Faith Yacubian, Assistant Professor Paleo Erik Shonstrom, Assistant Professor Borderlands Dr. Patricia DeRocher Walking Dr. Katheryn Wright, Associate Professor (COR-240-03) The Posthuman Dr. Katheryn Wright, Associate Professor Methodologies This page contains links to short explanations of the different methodologies used to understand bodies and embodiment. The Body Project overview of the common assignment Acknowledgements a list of contributors to 'Bodies: A Digital Companion'

The Posthuman: Introduction and Contents

14957 The Body Project overview of the common assignment

"The cyborg is our ontology; it gives us our politics." - Donna Haraway, "The Cyborg Manifesto"

Who is posthuman? Where does posthumanism come from? What are the politics of the posthuman? And, how does posthumanism connect to race, gender, class, and ability? Following this line of questioning, Dr. Wright's focus section on "Bodies: The Posthuman" will examine the significance of posthuman bodies in popular culture. We will also address the connection between the posthuman and key concepts central to understanding the body: mind-body dualism, embodiment, intersectionality, physical difference, cultural norm, and stigma.

At its most general, posthumanism challenges body boundaries that are often taken for granted in the Western tradition. First, the boundary between the body and technology. We will read about, analyze, and make our own versions of the cyborg. Second is the boundary between human and nonhuman bodies. Here, we will focus in on the intersection between disability studies and animal rights. Third, the boundary between bodies and their environments take center stage. After a brief introduction to actor-network theory, we will read a philosophical essay about the anthropocene. We will apply our discussions of these body boundaries to the study of afrofuturism, necropolitics, and algorithmic culture.

A significant portion of  "Bodies: The Posthuman" (click on link to access the syllabus on Google Docs) will be watching/reading examples of the posthuman in popular culture and discussing them using a roundtable format. We will be watching Ex Machina, Ghost in the Shell, and Rhymes for Young Ghouls. We will be reading Alan Moore's graphic novel Saga of the Swamp Thing and Jennifer Marie Brissett's post-colonial apocalyptic debut novel, Elysium. Most of your required readings/screenings are available as content links to this page. Check out the syllabus for specific due dates.

This page has paths:

  1. The Posthuman Katheryn Wright

Contents of this path:

  1. Natasha Lennard and Cary Wolfe, "Is Humanism Really Humane?"
  2. Why the Body?
  3. Embodiment
  4. René Descartes, "Meditation on First Philosophy" (1641)
  5. N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman (1999)
  6. How to Analyze a Video Game
  7. Deus Ex: GOTY Edition
  8. Deus Ex - Storyline Summary (Game Plot Dialogue)
  9. The Body Project
  10. Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto" (1984)
  11. Examined Life - Judith Butler & Sunaura Taylor
  12. Sunaura Taylor, Beasts of Burden - Part One (2017)
  13. Sunaura Taylor, Beasts of Burden - Part Two (2017)
  14. Rachel Jones, "Art Review: 'Interpose,' New City Galerie" (2017)
  15. Maria del Pilar Blanco and Esther Peeren, "Spectropolitics: Ghosts of the Global Contemporary/Introduction" in The Spectrality Reader (2013)
  16. Bruno Latour, Politics of Nature - Ch. 1 "Why Political Ecology Has to Let Go of Nature" (2004)
  17. Alan Moore, 'Saga of the Swamp Thing'
  18. Andre-Naquian Wheeler, "Why Afrofuturism is the Art Movement We Need in 2017" (2017)
  19. Octavia Butler: Science Future, Science Fiction
  20. Necropolitics
  21. Summary of Rosi Braidotti’s The Posthuman (Part 1)
  22. Summary of Rosi Braidotti’s The Posthuman (Part 2)
  23. Summary of Rosi Braidotti’s The Posthuman (Part 3)
  24. Steven Pokornowski, "Vulnerable Life: Zombies, Global Biopolitics, and the Reproduction of Structural Violence" (2016)
  25. Ted Striphas, "Algorithmic Culture" (2015)

Contents of this tag:

  1. Methodologies
  2. Noam Chomsky: The Anthropocene Period and its Challenges (2014)
  3. Ana Mendieta, "Earth Work 2" (1976)
  4. Kira Hall, "Cyberfeminism"
  5. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave - Alex Gendler
  6. Abeba Birhane, "Descartes was wrong: ‘a person is a person through other persons’" (2017)
  7. Deus Ex - 15th Anniversary Documentary
  8. Claudia Dreifus, "This Stunning Contemporary Art Captures Terror, Wonder and Wit in the Anthropocene" (2015)
  9. The Turing test: Can a computer pass for a human? - Alex Gendler
  10. Joan Slonczewski, "Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy: A Biologist’s Response" (2000)
  11. How the "Most Human Human" passed the Turing Test
  12. Octavia Butler: Science Future, Science Fiction
  13. Exploring Sun Ra's Afrofuturism - DUST Afrofuturism Ep. 1
  14. Karen Offen, "The History of Feminism is a Political History" (2011)
  15. Rachel Jones, "Art Review: 'Interpose,' New City Galerie" (2017)
  16. Figure 1.3 in Bruno Latour's Politics of Nature
  17. Joseph Stromberg, "What is the Anthropocene and Are We in It?" (2013)

This page references: