Posthuman Relational Subjectivity and the Politics of Affirmation

Abstract

This chapter deals with the discursive and analytic conditions that frame contemporary subjectivity which, I will argue, is both posthuman and relational. At the core of new subject formations there is a double shift from the anti-humanism of the post-structuralist generation, to a post-anthropocentric approach. This shift takes place within globalized advanced capitalism that is marked by high levels of technological mediation, internally contradictory temporalities and necro-political governmentality, or governance by fear. The posthuman indicates the shifting locations of the human in the era that is also known as the anthropocene. Throughout the chapter I will take feminist theory and praxis as the main point of reference, stressing the transformative and affirmative character of feminist politics.