Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: This article is an attempt to chart the field of contemporary posthumanist theory. Inspired by the work of Rita Felski, it identifies three principal styles of thought, or 'modes', of theorizing which are central to the field: critique, repair, and escalation. The essay successively characterizes and discusses each of these modes, and argues that for a posthumanist Cultural Studies today, the task should not so much be to choose or side with one of the currents of contemporary posthumanism, but rather to combine them. To this end, it emphasizes the significance of the work of articulation and advocates an orientation that would be essentially a pragmatic one. In this way, the article makes a case for the production not of Theory, but situated and contextual theorizations of local, specific problem-spaces – 'low theory'.
Author: Florian Cord
Institution: Technische Universität Dresden
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4411540836