Work

Machine Totems: Hughes' Shamanic Poetics in the Age of AI

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This paper examines Ted Hughes’ shamanic poetics through the lens of artificial intelligence, arguing that his animal totems (Crow, Pike, The Jaguar) anticipate contemporary tensions between organic consciousness and machine intelligence. By analyzing Hughes’ ritualistic verse structures alongside AI text generators’ ‘hallucinations,’ the study reveals how both systems employ fractured mythologies to navigate liminal states of being. The paper bridges Hughes’ ecological uncanny with posthumanist theory (Haraway, Hayles) and cognitive science (Hoffman’s interface theory), proposing his work as a vital hermeneutic for understanding AI’s mythopoeic impulses.

Source: RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary

DOI: 10.31305/rrijm.2025.v10.n7.023

Authors: Shanavas, Amit Dhawan

Institution: Desh Bhagat University

Language: English

Topic: Poetry Analysis and Criticism

Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

OpenAlex ID: W4413044466

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