Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture (Perspectives on the Non-Human in Literature and Culture)

The time has come for human cultures to seriously think, to severely conceptualize, and to earnestly fabulate about all the nonhuman critters we share our world with, and to consider how to strive for more ethical cohabitation. Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture tackles this severe matter within the framework of literary and cultural studies. The emphasis of the inquiry is on the various ways actual and fictional nonhumans are reconfigured in contemporary culture – although, as long as the domain of nonhumanity is carved in the negative space of humanity, addressing these issues will inevitably clamor for the reconfiguration of the human as well. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/reconfiguring-human-nonhuman-posthuman-literature-culture-sanna-karkulehto-aino-kaisa-koistinen-essi-varis/e/10.4324/9780429243042, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Contents 6 List of Figures 10 List of Contributors 12 Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman: Striving for More Ethical Cohabitation • Sanna Karkulehto, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen, Karoliina Lummaa, and Essi Varis 16 Part 1: Toward Posthumanist Literature and Posthumanist Reading 36 1 On the Possibility of a Posthuman/ist Literature(s) • Carole Guesse 38 2 Posthumanist Reading: Witnessing Ghosts, Summoning Nonhuman Powers • Karoliina Lummaa 56 3 Becoming-instrument: Thinking with Jeff Vander Meer’s Annihilation and Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects • Kaisa Kortekallio 72 Part 2: Imagining Aliens and Monsters 92 4 A lien Overtures: Speculating about Nonhuman Experiences with Comic Book Characters • Essi Varis 94 5 Playing the Nonhuman: Alien Experiences in Aliens vs. Predator • Jonne Arjoranta 123 6 Wild Things Squeezed in the Closet: Monsters of Children’s Literature as Nonhuman Others • Marleena Mustola and Sanna Karkulehto 140 Part 3: Becoming with Animals 158 7 Dead Dog Talking: Posthumous, Preposthumous, and Preposterous Canine Narration in Charles Siebert’s Angus • Mikko Keskinen 160 8 Carnivorous Anatomies: Art and Being Beasts • Brad Bolman 178 9 Reconfiguring Human and Nonhuman Animals in a Guiding Assemblage: Toward Posthumanist Conception of Disability • Hana Porkertová 197 Part 4: Technological (Co-)Agencies 216 10 Meeting the Machine Halfway: Toward Non-Anthropocentric Semiotics 8 Cléo Collomb and Samuel Goyet 218 11 Journeys in Intensity: Human and Nonhuman Co-Agency, Neuropower, and Counterplay in Minecraft • Marleena Huuhka 233 12 Cyborganic Wearables: Sociotechnical Misbehavior and the Evolution of Nonhuman Agency • Patricia Flanagan and Raune Frankjær 251 Part 5: Afterword: Unnarratable Matter? 276 13 Unnarratable Matter: Emergence, Narrative, and Material Ecocriticism • Juha Raipola 278 Index 296 "The time has come for human cultures to seriously think, to severely conceptualize, and to earnestly fabulate about all the nonhuman critters we share our world with, and to consider how to strive for more ethical cohabitation. Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture tackles this severe matter within the framework of literary and cultural studies. The emphasis of the inquiry is on the various ways actual and fictional nonhumans are reconfigured in contemporary culture - although, as long as the domain of nonhumanity is carved in the negative space of humanity, addressing these issues will inevitably clamor for the reconfiguration of the human as well"-- Provided by publisher The emphasis of the inquiry in Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture is on the various ways actual and fictional nonhumans are reconfigured in contemporary culture.