1st Edition

Posthuman and Nonhuman Entanglements in Contemporary Art and the Body

By Justyna Stępień Copyright 2022
    140 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Disclosing the interconnectedness of human and nonhuman bodies, understood here as more/than/human entanglements, this book makes a crucial intervention into the field of contemporary artistic studies, exploring how art can conceptualize material boundaries of entangled beings/doings.

    Drawing on critical posthumanist and new materialist thought, in this book, nonhumans become subjects of ethics, aesthetics, and politics that produce equally relevant meanings. Designed to include multiple artistic perspectives and forms of expression, which range from sculptures to bio-art and performative practices, the book argues that we are entangled with other organisms around us not only by our socio-cultural connections but predominately by the transformations that we all undergo with the world’s materiality. Thus, the artistic works discussed do not merely reflect the world but transform it, offering solutions for practising alternative ethical values and acting better with and for the world.

    The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, cultural studies, media studies, body studies, performance studies, animal studies, and environmental studies.

    Introduction. Unfolding Posthuman, Nonhuman and More/than/human Entanglement 1. Unfolding Body Archipelagos. From Parallelism to More/than/human Entanglements 2. Unfolding Human/Nonhuman Animal Entanglements 3. Unfolding More/than/human Entanglements in Ethical Laboratories 4. Unfolding More/than/human Performances with and for the Future Epilogue. Unfolding Novel Metaphors for More/than/human Entangled Future

    Biography

    Justyna Stępień is Assistant Professor in Cultural Studies and the co-founder of Posthumanities Centre □at the Faculty of Philology, University of Łódź, Poland.