Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture
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Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture The time has come for human cultures to seriously think, to diligently conceptualize, and to earnestly fabulate about all the nonhuman critters we share our world with, and to consider how to strive for more ethi- cal 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 in which actual and fictional nonhumans are reconfigured in contemporary culture – although, as long as the domain of nonhu- manity is carved in the negative space of humanity, addressing these is- sues will inevitably clamor for the reconfiguration of the human as well. Sanna Karkulehto is Professor of Literature at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She has published books, articles, and book chapters on the critical study of representations of gender and sexuality, the politics of discourse, and the politics of difference. Her latest co-edited anthology offers theorization on the ethics and politics of reading when studying representations of gender and violence. Aino-Kaisa Koistinen currently works as postdoctoral researcher in Contemporary Culture Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research interests include feminist theory, posthumanism, crime and speculative fiction, transmediality, and monster studies. Essi Varis hails from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, where she has worked as a comics scholar and graduate student in Comparative Literature since 2013. She defended her doctoral compilation disserta- tion, Graphic Human Experiments: Frankensteinian Cognitive Logics of Characters in Vertigo Comics and Beyond, in 2019. Perspectives on the Non-Human in Literature and Culture Series Editor: Karen Raber, University of Mississippi, USA Literary and cultural criticism has ventured into a brave new world in recent decades: posthumanism, ecocriticism, critical animal studies, the new materialisms, the new vitalism, and other related approaches have transformed the critical environment, reinvigorating our encounters with familiar texts, and inviting us to take note of new or neglected ones. A vast array of non-human creatures, things, and forces are now emerg- ing as important agents in their own right. Inspired by human concern for an ailing planet, ecocriticism has grappled with the question of how important works of art can be to the preservation of something we have traditionally called “nature.” Yet literature’s capacity to take us on unex- pected journeys through the networks of affiliation and affinity we share with the earth on which we dwell – and without which we die – and to confront us with the drama of our common struggle to survive and thrive has not diminished in the face of what Lynn White Jr. called “our ecolog- ical crisis.” From animals to androids, non-human creatures and objects populate critical analyses in increasingly complex ways, complicating our conception of the cosmos by dethroning the individual subject and dis- mantling the comfortable categories through which we have interpreted our existence. Until now, however, the elements that compose this wave of scholarship on non-human entities have had limited places to gather to be nurtured as a collective project. “Perspectives on the Non-Human in Literature and Culture” provides that local habitation. In this series, read- ers will find creatures of all descriptions, as well as every other form of biological life; they will also meet the non-biological, the microscopic, the ethereal, the intangible. It is our goal for the series to provide an encounter zone where all forms of human engagement with the non-human in all pe- riods and national literatures can be explored, and where the discoveries that result can speak to one another, as well as to scholars and students. Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture Edited by Sanna Karkulehto, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen, and Essi Varis For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ Perspectives-on-the-Non-Human-in-Literature-and-Culture/ book-series/PNHLC Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture Edited by Sanna Karkulehto, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen and Essi Varis First published 2020 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Taylor & Francis The right of Sanna Karkulehto, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen, and Essi Varis to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this title has been requested ISBN: 978-0-367-19747-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-24304-2 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by codeMantra Contents List of Figures ix List of Contributors xi Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman: Striving for More Ethical Cohabitation 1 SANNA KARKULEHTO, AINO-KAISA KOISTINEN, KAROLIINA LUMMAA, AND EssI VARIS PA RT 1 T oward Posthumanist Literature and Posthumanist Reading 21 1 On the Possibility of a Posthuman/ist Literature(s) 23 CAROLE GUESSE 2 Posthumanist Reading: Witnessing Ghosts, Summoning Nonhuman Powers 41 KAROLIINA LUMMAA 3 Becoming-instrument: Thinking with Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation and Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects 57 KAISA KORTEKALLIO PA RT 2 Imagining Aliens and Monsters 77 A4 lien Overtures: Speculating about Nonhuman Experiences with Comic Book Characters 79 Ess I VARIS vi Contents 5 Playing the Nonhuman: Alien Experiences in Aliens vs. Predator 108 Jonne ARJORANTA 6 Wild Things Squeezed in the Closet: Monsters of Children’s Literature as Nonhuman Others 125 M ARLEENA MUSTOLA and SANNA KARKULEHTO PR A T 3 Becoming with Animals 143 7 Dead Dog Talking: Posthumous, Preposthumous, and Preposterous Canine Narration in Charles Siebert’s Angus 145 Mikko KESKINEN 8 Carnivorous Anatomies: Art and Being Beasts 163 B RAD BOLMAN 9 Reconfiguring Human and Nonhuman Animals in a Guiding Assemblage: Toward Posthumanist Conception of Disability 182 HNAA PORKERTOVÁ PR A T 4 T echnological (Co-)Agencies 201 01 Meeting the Machine Halfway: Toward Non-Anthropocentric Semiotics 203 CLÉO COLLOMB and SAMUEL GOYET 11 Journeys in Intensity: Human and Nonhuman Co-Agency, Neuropower, and Counterplay in Minecraft 218 M ARLEENA HUUHKA 21 Cyborganic Wearables: Sociotechnical Misbehavior and the Evolution of Nonhuman Agency 236 P ATRICIA FLANAGAN and RAUNE FRANKJÆR Contents vii PR A T 5 Afterword: Unnarratable Matter? 261 31 Unnarratable Matter: Emergence, Narrative, and Material Ecocriticism 263 JHAU RAIPOLA Index 281 List of Figures 1.1 Jakobson’s “constitutive factors” in speech events and any acts of verbal communication (Jakobson 1960, 353) 26 2.1 Excerpt from the poem “kadonneen äänen lyhyt haastattelu” by Jouni Tossavainen 49 2.2 Jukka-Pekka Kervinen: “damage” (2008) 52 4.1 The beetles must assume a human-shaped formation in order to speak, while Dream’s face momentarily reflects their insectoid features (2015, #3, [15]). The Sandman: Overture © 2013 DC Comics. Written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by J. H. Williams, III 96 4.2 Dream’s fluid physical form appears to be fractured into various possible appearances by the ruby amulet he uses for long-distance communication with other god-like characters (2015, #2, [17]). The Sandman: Overture © 2013 DC Comics. Written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by J. H. Williams, III 98 4.3 The readers are watching the storyworld as – while also being metaleptically watched by – the Corinthian (2015, #1, [6–7]). The Sandman: Overture © 2013 DC Comics. Written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by J. H. Williams, III 100 4.4 This page layout plays with the “opaqueness” of written language, the apparent “transparency” of pictorial presentation, and the book’s overarching motif of reflections (2015, #1, [11]). The Sandman: Overture © 2013 DC Comics. Written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by J. H. Williams, III 101 4.5 Some aspects of Dream are irrevocably hidden and unrepresentable, whereas his familiar human form results from, and appeals to, the human readers’ perspectives (2015, #1, [24]). The Sandman: Overture © 2013 DC Comics. Written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by J. H. Williams, III 103 x List of Figures 5.1 A hiding ninja in Mark of the Ninja (Klei Entertainment 2012). The dim blue circle marks the range of sound produced by the dog 111 5.2 Sensing the surroundings in Hærfest (Technically Finished 2009; image via Mobygames) 112 5.3 A dark room, seen in the light of a gun-mounted flashlight 113 5.4 Specimen 6 stalking human prey through the wall 115 5.5 The predator stalking human prey with thermal vision 117 5.6 The predator sight without filters 117 10.1 Screenshot of a Google Search request for “Reindeer”, carried out on September 27, 2015 206 11.1 Wandering 231 11.2 Traveling in intensity 232 12.1 Bamboo Whisper, Tricia Flanagan and Raune Frankjær 237 12.2 Blinklifier, Tricia Flanagan and Katia Vega 238 12.3 BIOdress 2014, The Walter Collective (Sara Adhitya, Beck Davis, Tricia Flanagan, and Raune Frankjær) 239 12.4 Malawi boys in initiation ritual. Photo by CCBY2.0 Steve Evans (Image courtesy of Creative Commons – 2.0 Generic license) 248 12.5 Japanese Komuso wearing Tengai. Photo by CCBY3.0 松岡明芳 (Image courtesy of Creative Commons – 3.0 Unported license) 248 12.6 Inter-human communication in the form of speech is generally mastered and internalized once past toddlerhood.