Rosi Braidotti

The Posthuman offers both an introduction and major contribution to contemporary debates on the posthuman. Digital 'second life', genetically modified food, advanced prosthetics, robotics and reproductive technologies are familiar facets of our globally linked and technologically mediated societies. This has blurred the traditional distinction between the human and its others, exposing the non-naturalistic structure of the human. The Posthuman starts by exploring the extent to which a post-humanist move displaces the traditional humanistic unity of the subject. Rather than perceiving this situation as a loss of cognitive and moral self-mastery, Braidotti argues that the posthuman helps us make sense of our flexible and multiple identities. Braidotti then analyzes the escalating effects of post-anthropocentric thought, which encompass not only other species, but also the sustainability of our planet as a whole. Because contemporary market economies profit from the control and commodification of all that lives, they result in hybridization, erasing categorical distinctions between the human and other species, seeds, plants, animals and bacteria. These dislocations induced by globalized cultures and economies enable a critique of anthropocentrism, but how reliable are they as indicators of a sustainable future? The Posthuman concludes by considering the implications of these shifts for the institutional practice of the humanities. Braidotti outlines new forms of cosmopolitan neo-humanism that emerge from the spectrum of post-colonial and race studies, as well as gender analysis and environmentalism. The challenge of the posthuman condition consists in seizing the opportunities for new social bonding and community building, while pursuing sustainability and empowerment.

The Posthuman

The author argues for a new type of philosophical thinking that embraces the insights of feminism and abandons the hegemonic mode that is conventionally adopted in high theory. Exploring issues at the core of feminist debate, she insists on an integration of feminism in mainstream discourse.

Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory

Nomadic Subjects

In a context marked by the virulent return of patriarchal and white supremacist attitudes, a new generation of activists, from the Xenofeminists to Pussy Riot, are continuing the struggle, fighting alongside star feminists like Emma Watson and Scarlett Johansson: these are very feminist times. But how do these and other struggles relate to our contemporary posthuman condition? In this important new book, Rosi Braidotti examines the implications of the posthuman turn for feminist theory and practice. She defines the posthuman turn as a convergence between post-humanism on the one hand and post-anthropocentrism on the other, and she examines the double impact of these two lines of critical enquiry for contemporary feminist practice. In so doing she develops five theses: that contemporary feminism is neo-materialist and that feminism today is not a humanism; that Anthropos has been de-centered and that non-human life, Zoe, is now the ruling concept; and that, as a result of these shifts of perspective, today sexuality can be defined as a force beyond, beneath and after gender. The book ends with a plea for joyful political resistance, calling for embedded and embodied cartographies of the new power relations that are emerging from the current geo-political order. This bold new text by a leading feminist philosopher will be of great interest to students and scholars throughout the humanities and social sciences.

Posthuman Feminism

The question of what defines the human, and of what is human about the humanities, have been shaken up by the radical critiques of humanism and the displacement of anthropomorphism that have gained currency in recent years, propelled in part by rapid advances in our knowledge of living systems and of their genetic and algorithmic codes coupled with the global expansion of a knowledge-intensive capitalism. In Posthuman Knowledge, Rosi Braidotti takes a closer look at the impact of these developments on three major areas: the constitution of our subjectivity, the general production of knowledge and the practice of the academic humanities. Drawing on feminist, postcolonial and anti-racist theory, she argues that the human was never a neutral category but one always linked to power and privilege. Hence we must move beyond the old dualities in which Man defined himself, beyond the sexualized and racialized others that were excluded from humanity. Posthuman knowledge, as Braidotti understands it, is not so much an alternative form of knowledge as a critical call: a call to build a multi-layered and multi-directional project that displaces anthropocentrism while pursuing the analysis of the discriminatory and violent aspects of human activity and interaction wherever they occur. Situated between the exhilaration of scientific and technological advances on the one hand and the threat of climate change devastation on the other, the posthuman convergence encourages us to think hard and creatively about what we are in the process of becoming.

Posthuman Knowledge

Arranged thematically, essays begin with such concepts as sexual difference and embodied subjectivity and follow with explorations in technoscience, feminism, postsecular citizenship, and the politics of affirmation. Braidotti develops a distinctly positive critical theory that rejuvenates the experience of political scholarship. Inspired yet not confined by Deleuzian vitalism, with its commitment to the ontology of flows, networks, and dynamic transformations, she emphasizes affects, imagination, and creativity and the politics of radical immanence. Incorporating ideas from Nietzsche and Spinoza as well, Braidotti establishes a critical-theoretical framework equal parts critique and creation.

The Portable Rosi Braidotti

Nomadic Theory

Eleanor Drage

Kerry McInerney

Why Technology Needs Feminism

Good Robot

Maria Hlavajova

Posthuman Glossary

Manuel DeLanda

A Philosophy of Perception

Materialist Phenomenology

Insan Sonrasi

Nina Power

Shulamith Firestone

Laboria Cuboniks

Beatriz Preciado

dea ex machina

Bojana Cvejic

John Akomfrah

Bas Lafleur

Vasyl Cherepanyn

Courageous Citizens

This book is a brilliant and timely analysis of the complex issues raised by the relation between women and philosophy. It offers a critical account of a wide range of contemporary philosophical and feminist texts and it develops this account into an original project of critical feminist thought. Braidotti examines contemporary French philosophy as practised by men such as Foucault and Derrida, showing that they rely on a notion of 'the feminine' in order to undermine classical thought, which bears no direct relevance to the historical experience of women. Braidotti then looks at the attempts of contemporary feminist thinkers in Europe and the United States to show the gendered nature of discursive power games. She discusses the contributions of Luce Irigaray and many other feminist theorists to the understanding of sexual difference and of its implications for philosophy and politics. This book will be of interest to students and researchers in women's studies, feminist theory, social theory, cultural studies, philosophy and literature, and anyone interested in contemporary feminism and the relation between feminist theory, post-structuralism and psychoanalysis.

A Study of Women and Contemporary Philosophy

Patterns of Dissonance

Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.

Joanna Bednarek

Aleksander Kowalczyk (tłumacz)

Po człowieku

The discussions about the ethical, political and human implications of the postmodernist condition have been raging for longer than most of us care to remember. They have been especially fierce within feminism. After a brief flirtation with postmodern thinking in the 1980s, mainstream feminist circles seem to have turned their back on the staple notions of poststructuralist philosophy. Metamorphoses takes stock of the situation and attempts to reset priorities within the poststructuralist feminist agenda. Cross-referring in a creative way to Deleuze's and Irigaray's respective philosophies of difference, the book addresses key notions such as embodiment, immanence, sexual difference, nomadism and the materiality of the subject. Metamorphoses also focuses on the implications of these theories for cultural criticism and a redefinition of politics. It provides a vivid overview of contemporary culture, with special emphasis on technology, the monstrous imaginary and the recurrent obsession with 'the flesh' in the age of techno-bodies. This highly original contribution to current debates is written for those who find changes and transformations challenging and necessary. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy, feminist theory, gender studies, sociology, social theory and cultural studies.

Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming

Metamorphoses

Kin Yuen Wong

Amy K. S. Chan

The volume is inspired by Gilles Deleuze's philosophical project, which builds on the critique of European Humanism and opens up inspiring new perspectives for the renewal of the field.

East and West

Deleuze and the Humanities

Simone Bignall

Through specific readings and uses of Deleuze’s conceptual apparatus, this volume examines the operation of human-actioned systems as complex and heterogeneous arenas of affection and accountability.

Complexity and Process after Deleuze

Posthuman Ecologies

Celia Roberts

Sonja Erikainen

Andrea Ford

Roslyn Malcolm

Lisa Raeder

From angiotensin to cortisol, testosterone to xenoestrogens, and dopamine to endocrine disruptors, hormones are everywhere. These chemical entities are foundational to biological life and shape social, cultural, and political forces, while simultaneously being shaped by them. Hormones are increasingly central not only to medical and other body-shaping practices and contemporary science, but also environmentally-oriented conversations. Throughout Hormonal Theory, authors trace how biomedical, social, political, and experiential forces entangle to produce hormones as we know them today. It illuminates how hormones emerge and exist as complex entities that permeate every sphere of our lives. Each glossary entry takes a particular hormonal compound as its starting point, yet works to elaborate and complicate understandings of hormones as distinct biological or chemical entities. The entries collectively show how hormones never operate in isolation from other hormones, nor bodies in isolation from other human and non-human bodies and their socio-ecological surroundings. Indeed, they “cascade” into one another. This volume, then, is not simply a qualitatively-rich companion to medical knowledge about hormones, but a challenge to the conceptual underpinnings of current dominant understandings of disease, wellness, and normalcy.

A Rebellious Glossary

Hormonal Theory

Christine Daigle

Terrance H. McDonald

Uncovering the theoretical and creative interconnections between posthumanism and philosophies of immanence, this volume explores the influence of the philosophy of immanence on posthuman theory; the varied reworkings of immanence for the nonhuman turn; and the new pathways for critical thinking created by the combination of these monumental discourses. With the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari serving as a vibrant node of immanence, this volume maps a multiplicity of pathways from Deleuze, Guattari and their theoretical allies – including Spinoza and Nietzsche – to posthuman thought. As positions that insist, respectively, on the equal yet distinct powers of mind and body (immanence) and the urgent need to dismantle human privilege and exceptionality (posthumanism), each chapter reveals concepts for rethinking established notions of being, thought, experience, and life. The authors here take examples from a range of different media, including literature and contemporary cinema, featuring films such as Enthiran/The Robot (India, 2010) and CHAPPiE (USA/Mexico, 2015), and new developments in technology and theory. In doing so, they investigate Deleuzian and Guattarian posthumanism from a variety of political and ethical frameworks and perspectives, from afro-pessimism to feminist thought, disability studies, biopolitics, and social justice. Countering the dualisms of Cartesian philosophy and flattening the hierarchies imposed by Humanism, From Deleuze and Guattari to Posthumanism launches vital interrogations of established knowledge and sparks the critical reflection necessary for life in the posthuman era.

Philosophies of Immanence

From Deleuze and Guattari to Posthumanism

Patricia Pisters

An exploration of the relevance of Deleuze's nomadic thought for re-thinking norms, values and laws in a manner that by-passes structural negativity while avoiding relativism.

Revisiting Normativity with Deleuze

Este volumen ofrece un marco para analizar, decodificar y juzgar los cambios que se han producido en las condiciones históricas y en el imaginario social de las sociedades posindustriales, poscoloniales y poscomunistas al entrar en el nuevo milenio. Entre los factores que más inciden en la reestructuración del imaginario social contemporáneo están las nuevas tecnologías. Los análisis se centran en las representaciones de los sujetos corpóreos que están experimentando una amplia revalorización cultural en contextos sociales, culturales y políticos específicos de la posmodernidad tardía. La encarnación, la subjetividad, la sexualidad y la diferencia sexual son algunos de los términos clave que se discuten en este libro con referencia especial a los trabajos de los filósofos Gilles Deleuze y Luce Irigaray. Braidotti aboga por la necesidad de establecer definiciones del sujeto como no-unitario y nómade que, sin embargo, no supriman la noción de agencia o de responsabilidad. La teoría y la práctica feministas ofrecen las bases innovadoras y normativas de este proyecto: en primer lugar, las diferencias sexuales en tanto teoría asimétrica de relaciones de poder en la esfera social y la simbólica; en segundo lugar, las políticas de la ubicación o, en su versión epistemológica, de “conocimiento localizado” como una teoría radical de la responsabilidad; en tercer lugar, la cuestión específica de la corporeización o del materialismo corpóreo, tal como la han elaborado las filósofas feministas posestructuralistas. En diálogo y en amistoso desacuerdo con las principales interpretaciones norteamericanas de la filosofía francesa, este libro propone una teoría de las prácticas imbricadas de la subjetividad, que reflejan el contexto social e histórico de un tiempo de crisis y transformación.

Feminismo, diferencia sexual y subjetividad nómade

Rosi Braidotti

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