Recognizing the Anthropocene: Queer Disidentification as a Narrative Towards Non-Human Agents"

Abstract

In this article, the author proposes an alternative narrative opposed to those of traditional recognition in order to address the relationship between humans and the environment in the Anthropocene. With regards to current discourses around Gaia in the Anthropocene, and especially when dealing with climate change, authors such as Isabelle Stengers or Michele Serres have given a special relevance to the notion of recognition. By using Amitav Gosh’s reading of recognition as a mode of pre-reflexive awareness of a non-human agential capability, the author will begin to outline new modes of understanding this narrative of recognition. The goal of this article is to propose that non-human recognition is marked by a failed interpellation, following the inquiries of Louis Althusser, and that, therefore, it should rather be understood through the queer notion of ‘disidentification’ by Jose Esteban Muñoz. In doing so, new stories can emerge in order to understand our relationship with non-human agents in a less anthropocentric manner and in a way that deals with the complexities of our being in the Anthropocene.