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Manifestly Haraway (Volume 37)
Electrifying, provocative, and controversial when first published thirty years ago, Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto” is even more relevant today, when the divisions that she so eloquently challenges—of human and machine but also of gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and location—are increasingly complex. The subsequent “Companion Species Manifesto,” which further questions the human–nonhuman disjunction, is no less urgently needed in our time of environmental crisis and profound polarization.
Manifestly Haraway brings together these momentous manifestos to expose the continuity and ramifying force of Haraway’s thought, whose significance emerges with engaging immediacy in a sustained conversation between the author and her long-term friend and colleague Cary Wolfe. Reading cyborgs and companion species through and with each other, Haraway and Wolfe join in a wide-ranging exchange on the history and meaning of the manifestos in the context of biopolitics, feminism, Marxism, human–nonhuman relationships, making kin, literary tropes, material semiotics, the negative way of knowing, secular Catholicism, and more.
The conversation ends by revealing the early stages of Haraway’s “Chthulucene Manifesto,” in tension with the teleologies of the doleful Anthropocene and the exterminationist Capitalocene. Deeply dedicated to a diverse and robust earthly flourishing, Manifestly Haraway promises to reignite needed discussion in and out of the academy about biologies, technologies, histories, and still possible futures.
Manifestly Haraway brings together these momentous manifestos to expose the continuity and ramifying force of Haraway’s thought, whose significance emerges with engaging immediacy in a sustained conversation between the author and her long-term friend and colleague Cary Wolfe. Reading cyborgs and companion species through and with each other, Haraway and Wolfe join in a wide-ranging exchange on the history and meaning of the manifestos in the context of biopolitics, feminism, Marxism, human–nonhuman relationships, making kin, literary tropes, material semiotics, the negative way of knowing, secular Catholicism, and more.
The conversation ends by revealing the early stages of Haraway’s “Chthulucene Manifesto,” in tension with the teleologies of the doleful Anthropocene and the exterminationist Capitalocene. Deeply dedicated to a diverse and robust earthly flourishing, Manifestly Haraway promises to reignite needed discussion in and out of the academy about biologies, technologies, histories, and still possible futures.
336 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2016
162 people are currently reading
1201 people want to read
About the author
Donna J. Haraway
73 books1,227 followersDonna J. Haraway is an American Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department and Feminist Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, United States. She is a prominent scholar in the field of science and technology studies, described in the early 1990s as a "feminist, rather loosely a postmodernist". Haraway is the author of numerous foundational books and essays that bring together questions of science and feminism, such as "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century" (1985) and "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective". Additionally, for her contributions to the intersection of information technology and feminist theory, Haraway is widely cited in works related to Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Her Situated Knowledges and Cyborg Manifesto publications in particular, have sparked discussion within the HCI community regarding framing the positionality from which research and systems are designed. She is also a leading scholar in contemporary ecofeminism, associated with post-humanism and new materialism movements. Her work criticizes anthropocentrism, emphasizes the self-organizing powers of nonhuman processes, and explores dissonant relations between those processes and cultural practices, rethinking sources of ethics.
Haraway has taught Women's Studies and the History of Science at the University of Hawaii and Johns Hopkins University. Haraway's works have contributed to the study of both human-machine and human-animal relations. Her works have sparked debate in primatology, philosophy, and developmental biology. Haraway participated in a collaborative exchange with the feminist theorist Lynn Randolph from 1990 to 1996. Their engagement with specific ideas relating to feminism, technoscience, political consciousness, and other social issues, formed the images and narrative of Haraway's book Modest_Witness for which she received the Society for Social Studies of Science's (4S) Ludwik Fleck Prize in 1999. In 2000, Haraway was awarded the Society for Social Studies of Science's John Desmond Bernal Prize for her distinguished contributions to the field of science and technology studies. Haraway serves on the advisory board for numerous academic journals, including differences, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Contemporary Women's Writing, and Environmental Humanities.
Haraway has taught Women's Studies and the History of Science at the University of Hawaii and Johns Hopkins University. Haraway's works have contributed to the study of both human-machine and human-animal relations. Her works have sparked debate in primatology, philosophy, and developmental biology. Haraway participated in a collaborative exchange with the feminist theorist Lynn Randolph from 1990 to 1996. Their engagement with specific ideas relating to feminism, technoscience, political consciousness, and other social issues, formed the images and narrative of Haraway's book Modest_Witness for which she received the Society for Social Studies of Science's (4S) Ludwik Fleck Prize in 1999. In 2000, Haraway was awarded the Society for Social Studies of Science's John Desmond Bernal Prize for her distinguished contributions to the field of science and technology studies. Haraway serves on the advisory board for numerous academic journals, including differences, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Contemporary Women's Writing, and Environmental Humanities.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
July 8, 2016
Yeah five stars. Haraway, I'm convinced, will be remembered as the key thinker of our time. This new book (2016) from Minnesota collects her Cyborg Manifesto (1985), Companion Species Manifesto (2002), and an extensive interview with Minnesota's "Posthumanities" series editor Cary Wolfe, that is really a tour de force.
I read the Cyborg Manifesto in the mid 1990s, and was properly impressed with it at the time; her argument for our essential tangledness and call for taking responsibility for all that we are seemed so right to me back then. I re-read it several times in grad school, & mined it for its many bon mots and nuggets of critical insight. But re-reading it last week, I was shocked how fresh it still seems. Haraway wrote the thing before anyone really knew what the Internet was, let alone how much of our lives, society, and economy would be dominated by it. But it's still spot on, maybe even more so. A friend called it "shockingly prescient."
The Companion Species Manifesto, which was positioned as the follow-up, was new to me. Here, Haraway turns away from her critique of technoscience and talks about dogs instead, but making many of the same moves... our intertwined histories, our mythologies of purity, our interdependence. I found the second manifesto more challenging -- she's much more of a dog person than I am. The synthesis really comes in the third chapter, which is Cary Wolfe's interrogation of Haraway in 2014, thinking through the themes of both essays in light of everything that's come since. Her brilliance here is even more impressive, as she turns phrases and mines our collective mythological inheritance (especially her Catholicism) with truly breathtaking intensity. This book made the hair stand up on the back of my neck in several places.
Best news: the very end of this book prefigures her forthcoming (fall 2016) Staying With Trouble, in which she apparently move beyond the so-called "Anthropocene" to propose a more ominous, yet (true to Haraway) still hopeful "Chthulucene" era -- there's posthumanism for you. Can't wait for that.
I read the Cyborg Manifesto in the mid 1990s, and was properly impressed with it at the time; her argument for our essential tangledness and call for taking responsibility for all that we are seemed so right to me back then. I re-read it several times in grad school, & mined it for its many bon mots and nuggets of critical insight. But re-reading it last week, I was shocked how fresh it still seems. Haraway wrote the thing before anyone really knew what the Internet was, let alone how much of our lives, society, and economy would be dominated by it. But it's still spot on, maybe even more so. A friend called it "shockingly prescient."
The Companion Species Manifesto, which was positioned as the follow-up, was new to me. Here, Haraway turns away from her critique of technoscience and talks about dogs instead, but making many of the same moves... our intertwined histories, our mythologies of purity, our interdependence. I found the second manifesto more challenging -- she's much more of a dog person than I am. The synthesis really comes in the third chapter, which is Cary Wolfe's interrogation of Haraway in 2014, thinking through the themes of both essays in light of everything that's come since. Her brilliance here is even more impressive, as she turns phrases and mines our collective mythological inheritance (especially her Catholicism) with truly breathtaking intensity. This book made the hair stand up on the back of my neck in several places.
Best news: the very end of this book prefigures her forthcoming (fall 2016) Staying With Trouble, in which she apparently move beyond the so-called "Anthropocene" to propose a more ominous, yet (true to Haraway) still hopeful "Chthulucene" era -- there's posthumanism for you. Can't wait for that.
April 2, 2022
I agree with Haraway most of the time, it's just that the more of her books I read, the more repetitive she sounds *sigh*
April 26, 2024
A re-read of the cyborg manifesto that I still find as question-making and forceful as I did at 20. While I’m less into the companion manifesto, I feel the force of Haraway’s need to call bullshit when we start talking about information flows outside of context and material.
September 17, 2024
The Cyborg Manifesto still rings true today, in 2024, and the final interview included in the volume is also really interesting, as it sheds light on how Haraway's thought has changed and developed from the aforementioned manifesto and the other one included in the book. And yet. Honestly, I didn't understand much of The Companion Species Manifesto. I think what she and Cary Wolfe say about it in the final interview makes more sense than the manifesto itself, which feels a bit strange.
June 30, 2018
i read "cyborg manifesto" as part of my thesis research. truly and honestly i understood about 1/4 of the text but it's such a brilliant and thoughtful examination of feminism, post-capitalism, immateriality, and the mechanical being as an ontological analogy for the human that i'll probably return to it at a future date.
January 2, 2021
Great read, though a bit hard for me at times. I definitely need to read some Foucalt, Derrida, etc and re-read this to pick up on all the references.
February 22, 2018
Donna Haraway portraits the world throught cyborgs, elements of the world that picture transgression and breaking all the stablished boundaries, but, ironically, postulating a myth based on sci-fi, Haraway describes the past and the present of our society purely. This book is, without doubt, a magnificent mirror in which we should be able to see our reflection. It is, also, a must-read for all those who may be interested in Feminism, Philosophy of Science or Metaphysics!
September 6, 2019
Came for The Companion Species, stayed for the Companions in Conversation. Both wonderful.
August 30, 2021
All I want to should into the wind is multi-species and cyborgs! This collection will stay with me for some time.
February 29, 2024
Donna never misses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 13, 2018
The Cyborg Manifesto is, of course, still a stunning, revolutionary piece of philosophical work that, in my opinion, succeeds in dismantling both the liberal subject, and analytic objectivity.
However, the Companion Species Manifesto reads far less like a philosophical work, and more a meandering jaunt across dog history and Haraway's own experiences with dogs.
I find it strange that a feminist could be open to the idea of pets. How does owning a pet differ from a man owning a women, teaching her how to act, and then saying, 'but it's a reciprocal relationship, see look, I feed her, she takes care of the kids and we occasionally go for walks'.
Am I missing something, or is this not the very definition of subjugation and paternalism? I know Haraway is intent on saying it isn't; that it's a deep, meaningful kinship, blurring our conceptions of animality and humanity; but replace dog with woman, and owner with man, and it's pretty obvious what kind of a relationship this is.
However, the Companion Species Manifesto reads far less like a philosophical work, and more a meandering jaunt across dog history and Haraway's own experiences with dogs.
I find it strange that a feminist could be open to the idea of pets. How does owning a pet differ from a man owning a women, teaching her how to act, and then saying, 'but it's a reciprocal relationship, see look, I feed her, she takes care of the kids and we occasionally go for walks'.
Am I missing something, or is this not the very definition of subjugation and paternalism? I know Haraway is intent on saying it isn't; that it's a deep, meaningful kinship, blurring our conceptions of animality and humanity; but replace dog with woman, and owner with man, and it's pretty obvious what kind of a relationship this is.
January 11, 2018
The real deal. This retrospective work (plus a recent conversation) only confirms that Haraway is one of the best thinkers of our muddy time. Challenging reading in the best possible way, with a flourish of style that only she can pull off. These shimmering sentences contain multitudes, stocked with vitalizing language that registers in modes from playful curiosity to dead-seriousness. Above all else, Haraway reminds us that “knowing” is fundamentally networked, linked across time and place (and species!) by different types of nodes and connections. I don’t pretend to understand everything here, but her dogged commitment to citing the network of people she thinks-with through these things provides ample opportunity to dig into other theories.
I’ve sort of been reading backwards in Haraway’s oeuvre, starting last year with the top-notch “Staying with the Trouble.” The “tentacular” (to use a Haraway-word) connections between so much of her earlier work and the landscape that she’s thinking in now are fascinating to trace. In particular, it was fruitful reading to see the how the figure of the “cyborg” was following by the “companion species” and then would come to be followed by the figures of the “Chthulucene.”
The pathbreaking “Cyborg Manifesto” feels both of its time (early 1980s) and eerily prescient, still. It made for some generally discomfiting reading — particularly as I read through it on Christmas Eve, “Silent Night” vs. the unapologetically loud cyborg — but Haraway reveals later in the book during the conversation section that the manifesto was meant to be felt in this unsettling way. No surprise, then, when she says: “The Companion Species manifesto grows out of an act of love, and the Cyborg Manifesto grows more out of an act of rage.”
The "Companion Species Manifesto” certainly gestures towards love, of a practiced type. Whereas I could not figure out how one could love or live-with the cyborg, really, I could easily find a place to think through loving companion species. Everyone who lives with dogs, in whatever capacity, has their opinions on the relationship; reading Haraway here was like listening to the most thoughtful “dog person” you could imagine. There are endless theories about “human’s relationship with dogs,” but Haraway doesn’t dwell in this grandstanding, finding that "Stories are much bigger than ideologies. In that is our hope.” We dwell in particularities and in universals here; the specific is what is always at stake in the bigger project of getting on well with each other in the Anthropocene/Capitalocene/Chthulucene. Living with dogs, and taking their entangled lives seriously, is not just some pet niche for dog-lovers to think though — it’s one of many portals into learning to live multispecies lives.
I’ll end with but one of the many exhortations Haraway gives us: “Again and again in my manifesto, I and my people need to learn to inhabit histories, not disown them, least of all through the cheap tricks of puritanical critique.” I think this is a challenging mantle to take on. We live in worlds not created by and for us, but rather shaped by the deeper forces of all that we don’t know and the more proximate ones of our recent ancestors and their multispecies relationships. The temptation to be “puritanically critical” of the past is strong — very strong indeed when you look at the mess they’ve given us. But what would we have done differently? Really, do we think that we would have made less of a mess? Haraway challenges us to “inhabit” rather than “disown” the lumpy legacy we’ve been born into — and her foray into “dogland” shows just how this done: attention to the particulars, care towards those which are not you, a wry orientation towards the past. But you must embed yourself as best you can — no funny games of critical distance here. Tough work to do, but essential too.
I’ve sort of been reading backwards in Haraway’s oeuvre, starting last year with the top-notch “Staying with the Trouble.” The “tentacular” (to use a Haraway-word) connections between so much of her earlier work and the landscape that she’s thinking in now are fascinating to trace. In particular, it was fruitful reading to see the how the figure of the “cyborg” was following by the “companion species” and then would come to be followed by the figures of the “Chthulucene.”
The pathbreaking “Cyborg Manifesto” feels both of its time (early 1980s) and eerily prescient, still. It made for some generally discomfiting reading — particularly as I read through it on Christmas Eve, “Silent Night” vs. the unapologetically loud cyborg — but Haraway reveals later in the book during the conversation section that the manifesto was meant to be felt in this unsettling way. No surprise, then, when she says: “The Companion Species manifesto grows out of an act of love, and the Cyborg Manifesto grows more out of an act of rage.”
The "Companion Species Manifesto” certainly gestures towards love, of a practiced type. Whereas I could not figure out how one could love or live-with the cyborg, really, I could easily find a place to think through loving companion species. Everyone who lives with dogs, in whatever capacity, has their opinions on the relationship; reading Haraway here was like listening to the most thoughtful “dog person” you could imagine. There are endless theories about “human’s relationship with dogs,” but Haraway doesn’t dwell in this grandstanding, finding that "Stories are much bigger than ideologies. In that is our hope.” We dwell in particularities and in universals here; the specific is what is always at stake in the bigger project of getting on well with each other in the Anthropocene/Capitalocene/Chthulucene. Living with dogs, and taking their entangled lives seriously, is not just some pet niche for dog-lovers to think though — it’s one of many portals into learning to live multispecies lives.
I’ll end with but one of the many exhortations Haraway gives us: “Again and again in my manifesto, I and my people need to learn to inhabit histories, not disown them, least of all through the cheap tricks of puritanical critique.” I think this is a challenging mantle to take on. We live in worlds not created by and for us, but rather shaped by the deeper forces of all that we don’t know and the more proximate ones of our recent ancestors and their multispecies relationships. The temptation to be “puritanically critical” of the past is strong — very strong indeed when you look at the mess they’ve given us. But what would we have done differently? Really, do we think that we would have made less of a mess? Haraway challenges us to “inhabit” rather than “disown” the lumpy legacy we’ve been born into — and her foray into “dogland” shows just how this done: attention to the particulars, care towards those which are not you, a wry orientation towards the past. But you must embed yourself as best you can — no funny games of critical distance here. Tough work to do, but essential too.
February 7, 2025
Der er meget at sige, men jeg kan ikke sige det særligt godt her og nu. Så jeg vil i stedet lige indsætte nogle citater. [Senere kommentar: dette er for mig at se et vaskeægte companion piece til at tænke med; et bevidst tvetydigt artefakt om filosofiernes demarkationer i sprog-politik, der kan hjælpe mig til at komplicere og underbygge en samtale om mine forpligtelser til at udføre min forskning]
"Let me summarize the picture of women's historical locations in advanced industrial societies, as these positions have been restructured partly through the social relations of science and technology. If it was ever possible ideologically to characterize women's lives by the distinction of public and private domains — suggested by images of the division of working-class life into factory and home, of bourgeois life into market and home, and of gender existence into personal and political realms — it is now a totally misleading ideology, even to show how both of these dichotomies construct each other in practice and in theory. I prefer a network ideological image, suggesting the profusion of spaces and identities and the permeability of boundaries in the personal body and in the body of politic. 'Networking' is both feminist practice and a multinational corporate strategy — weaving is for oppositional cyborgs." (45-46)
"This is a dream not of a common language, but of a powerful infidel heteroglossia. It is an imagination of a feminist speaking in tongues to strike fear into the circuits of the supersavers of the new right. It means both building and destroying machines, identities, categories, relationships, space stories. Though both are bound in the spiral dance, I would rather be a cyborg then a goddess." (67-68)
- The Cyborg Manifesto
---
"Dogs are not just surrogates for theory; they are not here just to think with. They are here to live with." (98)
"Living with animals, inhabiting their/our stories, trying to tell the truth about relationship, cohabiting an active history: that is the work of companion species, for whom 'the relation' is the smallest possible unit of analysis." (111)
"Domestication is an emergent process of cohabiting, involving agencies of many sorts and stories that do not lend themselves to yet one more version of the Fall of to an assured outcome for anybody." (122)
- The Companion Species Manifesto
"… [biopolitics] doesn't operate at the level of 'the person.' It doesn't operate even at the level of 'the body'—it operates at the level of what [Roberto Esposito] calls 'flesh.' The level of what he calls 'being-in-common'. For biopolitics species distinctions are not constitutive." (260)
- Companions in Conversation
---
"If you’re serious about enhancing the health of some ecosystems rather than others, you've got to think in an ecosystemic way. Which associates/companions should be here, and which should not? ... Because you literally can't sterilize; the hand-sanitizer thing is a bad joke. The main point is that insofar as biopolitics is concerned, this question of ecosystem assemblages is the name of the game of life on Earth. Period. There is no other game. There are no individuals plus environments. There are only webbed ecosystems made of variously configured, historically dynamic contact zones." (249-250)
- Companions in Conversation
"Let me summarize the picture of women's historical locations in advanced industrial societies, as these positions have been restructured partly through the social relations of science and technology. If it was ever possible ideologically to characterize women's lives by the distinction of public and private domains — suggested by images of the division of working-class life into factory and home, of bourgeois life into market and home, and of gender existence into personal and political realms — it is now a totally misleading ideology, even to show how both of these dichotomies construct each other in practice and in theory. I prefer a network ideological image, suggesting the profusion of spaces and identities and the permeability of boundaries in the personal body and in the body of politic. 'Networking' is both feminist practice and a multinational corporate strategy — weaving is for oppositional cyborgs." (45-46)
"This is a dream not of a common language, but of a powerful infidel heteroglossia. It is an imagination of a feminist speaking in tongues to strike fear into the circuits of the supersavers of the new right. It means both building and destroying machines, identities, categories, relationships, space stories. Though both are bound in the spiral dance, I would rather be a cyborg then a goddess." (67-68)
- The Cyborg Manifesto
---
"Dogs are not just surrogates for theory; they are not here just to think with. They are here to live with." (98)
"Living with animals, inhabiting their/our stories, trying to tell the truth about relationship, cohabiting an active history: that is the work of companion species, for whom 'the relation' is the smallest possible unit of analysis." (111)
"Domestication is an emergent process of cohabiting, involving agencies of many sorts and stories that do not lend themselves to yet one more version of the Fall of to an assured outcome for anybody." (122)
- The Companion Species Manifesto
"… [biopolitics] doesn't operate at the level of 'the person.' It doesn't operate even at the level of 'the body'—it operates at the level of what [Roberto Esposito] calls 'flesh.' The level of what he calls 'being-in-common'. For biopolitics species distinctions are not constitutive." (260)
- Companions in Conversation
---
"If you’re serious about enhancing the health of some ecosystems rather than others, you've got to think in an ecosystemic way. Which associates/companions should be here, and which should not? ... Because you literally can't sterilize; the hand-sanitizer thing is a bad joke. The main point is that insofar as biopolitics is concerned, this question of ecosystem assemblages is the name of the game of life on Earth. Period. There is no other game. There are no individuals plus environments. There are only webbed ecosystems made of variously configured, historically dynamic contact zones." (249-250)
- Companions in Conversation
October 8, 2018
I did not get through "The Cyborg Manifesto," but "The Companion Species Manifesto" is amazing. She offers so many ways to think about our intersubjectivity with our companion animals and to situate that relationship in a more moderate space. She argues that humans do not "make" dogs or other domesticated animals, but that we make them and are made by them in relationship.
She does not go all the way in promoting "animal rights" because she focuses on individual animals and individual kinds of animals, all of which have different needs and particular qualifications for happiness. Rather, the dogs she discusses have rights within a certain relationship with their significant human other.
Her focus on working dogs is also really interesting, as the work these breeds have historically done has been largely outsourced to more technologically advanced methods. However, new crises in ecology have made Great Pyrenees relevant again as LGDs because poison is no longer a viable option for controlling livestock predators like coyotes. But even agility training can be fulfilling, she argues, as it gives dogs and humans a shared goal of excellence that they reach only through hard work and a close, trusting relationship.
So while I still believe in animal rights to a certain extent, her argument has made me see that for certain domesticated species, being left alone would be the more abusive option. We must find ways to work together in relationships of mutual respect with our companion species again, and this is the path to actually valuing the lives of the species and individual animals with whom we share our environments.
She does not go all the way in promoting "animal rights" because she focuses on individual animals and individual kinds of animals, all of which have different needs and particular qualifications for happiness. Rather, the dogs she discusses have rights within a certain relationship with their significant human other.
Her focus on working dogs is also really interesting, as the work these breeds have historically done has been largely outsourced to more technologically advanced methods. However, new crises in ecology have made Great Pyrenees relevant again as LGDs because poison is no longer a viable option for controlling livestock predators like coyotes. But even agility training can be fulfilling, she argues, as it gives dogs and humans a shared goal of excellence that they reach only through hard work and a close, trusting relationship.
So while I still believe in animal rights to a certain extent, her argument has made me see that for certain domesticated species, being left alone would be the more abusive option. We must find ways to work together in relationships of mutual respect with our companion species again, and this is the path to actually valuing the lives of the species and individual animals with whom we share our environments.
August 29, 2019
I read Cyborg for undergrad work and parts have stuck with me, but as a memory of what it was about vs what it is about. Reading it with so many more years lived, experienced, and changes in the world (including feminism and technology) makes it feel at once optimistic but still vital and relevant.
The expansion of feminism to include WoC and the movement of technology to greater paternalistic spaces alone makes you go o.O with how that is an unresolved, thorny issue but also appreciate its prescience -and- proposals for solutions. Maybe everyone should reread this, right about now.
I cannot get into a full deconstruction. There just aren't enough characters left in this box and also I haven't the time to write a thesis/term paper lol.
Companion Species is different in quality but interesting. It's niche and specific and maybe doesn't seem to relate, but it does. That'd be a good framework for the thesis on this I'm not going to write.
I enjoyed the conversation on the end that adds depth and more contemporary reaction and thoughts from Haraway on her manifestos and perspectives. It's a bit too-too in some ways -- smart people indulging in reference-heavy PoMo smart dialogue -- but worth getting through to illuminate the manifestos in new ways.
The expansion of feminism to include WoC and the movement of technology to greater paternalistic spaces alone makes you go o.O with how that is an unresolved, thorny issue but also appreciate its prescience -and- proposals for solutions. Maybe everyone should reread this, right about now.
I cannot get into a full deconstruction. There just aren't enough characters left in this box and also I haven't the time to write a thesis/term paper lol.
Companion Species is different in quality but interesting. It's niche and specific and maybe doesn't seem to relate, but it does. That'd be a good framework for the thesis on this I'm not going to write.
I enjoyed the conversation on the end that adds depth and more contemporary reaction and thoughts from Haraway on her manifestos and perspectives. It's a bit too-too in some ways -- smart people indulging in reference-heavy PoMo smart dialogue -- but worth getting through to illuminate the manifestos in new ways.
April 14, 2018
this gets another star for book design. i love that it seems to refer to the tamed for part of little prince bc i was reminded of that during the companion species manifesto. it is so beautiful!! this book was a joy to experience just because i liked how the pages felt and looked!
the last interview is mostly a summary of "staying with the trouble". you could read that instead actually. or maybe it wouldn't make sense if you didn't read this. there was some parts of that interview that was just philosophy name circle jerking and i was bored. the rest that i understood were bc of SWTT.
it was a good idea to put these three together tho. however yea i think they coulda maybe shortened that interview. I'm astonished that she talks like she writes. but i also felt that section helped me understand a bit better what she is getting at in her ideas.
the last interview is mostly a summary of "staying with the trouble". you could read that instead actually. or maybe it wouldn't make sense if you didn't read this. there was some parts of that interview that was just philosophy name circle jerking and i was bored. the rest that i understood were bc of SWTT.
it was a good idea to put these three together tho. however yea i think they coulda maybe shortened that interview. I'm astonished that she talks like she writes. but i also felt that section helped me understand a bit better what she is getting at in her ideas.
May 1, 2018
Contains "The Cyborg Manifesto" and "The Companion Species Manifesto" as well as a conversation between Haraway and Cary Wolfe (the series editor).
Read The Cyborg Manifesto many years ago but completely forgot how amazing it is. Seriously 150% required reading. I feel I should reread this every year. The Companion Species Manifesto is good but it's collage-like narrative makes it feel unfinished. I understand the form was purposeful but it doesn't work as well as she'd like it to. This would absolutely be my best book in a decade if it weren't for that waywardness.
Shows how powerful a deep understanding of science (in this case Biology) wedded to postmodern philosophy (and socialist-feminism) can be. Really stunning breadth here and it speaks volumes STILL about our lives and needs (especially in the area of intersectionality).
Read The Cyborg Manifesto many years ago but completely forgot how amazing it is. Seriously 150% required reading. I feel I should reread this every year. The Companion Species Manifesto is good but it's collage-like narrative makes it feel unfinished. I understand the form was purposeful but it doesn't work as well as she'd like it to. This would absolutely be my best book in a decade if it weren't for that waywardness.
Shows how powerful a deep understanding of science (in this case Biology) wedded to postmodern philosophy (and socialist-feminism) can be. Really stunning breadth here and it speaks volumes STILL about our lives and needs (especially in the area of intersectionality).
January 8, 2023
The Cyborg Manifesto is one of my all time favourite pieces of writing. The Companion Species Manifesto I found extremely strange and somewhat alienating or just plain odd. I feel like it would work better on a surface level for people who have dogs of their own. The third piece in this book makes the whole thing (companion species included) amazing because it has Cary Wolfe and Donna Haraway discussing the growth of her theory a decade later, and you get to hear all about the thought and intent behind both pieces, how her thinking has evolved, how scholarship reacted, and you get to hear an early sketch of what would become Staying With the Trouble. Highly recommend this edition.
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March 13, 2025Using this book to log the Cyborg Manifesto (1/3 of Manifestly Haraway).
A thought-provoking wordsalad, that rises a fascinating possibility for a genderless/identityless world. Her construction of the practical irony is very interesting, and drives home her complex literary analysis and theoretical critique. A bit on the cryptic side, some of the most problematic aspects of her theory are kinda swept beneath the rug as she bolts through 20th century thinkers, scifi, poetry and television. For the casual resder, a daunting task, but still nurturing.
Also her shoutouts are impecable, and her taste in flawless.
A thought-provoking wordsalad, that rises a fascinating possibility for a genderless/identityless world. Her construction of the practical irony is very interesting, and drives home her complex literary analysis and theoretical critique. A bit on the cryptic side, some of the most problematic aspects of her theory are kinda swept beneath the rug as she bolts through 20th century thinkers, scifi, poetry and television. For the casual resder, a daunting task, but still nurturing.
Also her shoutouts are impecable, and her taste in flawless.
April 17, 2025
The dualisms posed in both manifestos of human vs the other are intriguing and Haraway does a great job integrating her post-modern Marxist feminist critique with the biopolitical, tackling everything from the industrial complex, to the Capitalocene, and ending with the companion species. I do think her discussion is both too encompassing in the Cyborg Manifesto, yet too narrow in the companion species manifesto. Her discussion with Cary Wolfe, however, significantly betters this, also providing Haraway the opportunity to engage in reflective critique, analyzing her significant shifts in both tone and opinion. Overall I enjoyed this book.
August 4, 2020
Eventually I'll come back and read the other essays in this collection (I have a feeling they'll go along with the Cyborg Manifesto well) but this review for now will just be on the Cyborg Manifesto. Third time reading it, this time I really took my time and appreciated every line - it's a dense read, and even though it's only 70 pages it took some time. Haraway can be pretty thick with the language at times but it never feels forced or unnecessary. In this essay Donna weaves an intricate new perspective whose deconstructive nature holds up even in 2020.
Through this sci fi lens, Haraway sets the stage for many modern perspectives in queer feminist theory and the way it develops alongside the changing workforce. Amazingly prescient and still relevant, she turns what could be something dark and inhuman (the cyborg) into a mythos that can empower.
Through this sci fi lens, Haraway sets the stage for many modern perspectives in queer feminist theory and the way it develops alongside the changing workforce. Amazingly prescient and still relevant, she turns what could be something dark and inhuman (the cyborg) into a mythos that can empower.
September 28, 2019
This collection is incredible in the way that it shows Haraway's own grappling with her ideas put forth in the Cyborg Manifesto over the span of 30 years. She has admirable humility and the conversation between her and Cary Wolfe at the end models academic collegiality and collaboration. I've read Haraway many times but never have I been so animated and excited by her ideas as I was reading this collection.
February 18, 2020
Rereading the cyborg manifesto was great, but reading the companion species manifesto for the first time was even better. I continue to be a fan of Haraway’s poetic (albeit sometimes convoluted) language. Really appreciated that she ended on a brief note about the *chthonic multi species beings*, it reminded me of Staying with the Trouble and how amazed I was when I was first read that book too
February 15, 2019
Overly-optimistic about people's ability to function under postmodernity, but at the same time is probably the closest thing to good a guide on how to properly go about that assuming you have no other choice there is.
October 15, 2020
Makes my head spin, but in a good way (and honestly, more optimistic than I'd have expected). Next time I'll take my time and really savor her style. 4.5 because the final interview gets a bit bogged down in philosophical name-dropping.
May 23, 2021
A hard read, but oh so rewarding when you finally get into the flow of its writing style.
I wouldn´t recommend it to a beginner in feminist theory or even someone with a non-fluent level of English though.
I wouldn´t recommend it to a beginner in feminist theory or even someone with a non-fluent level of English though.
May 21, 2022
มีเสวนาเลยได้กลับมาอ่านอีกรอบหลังจากร้างลาไปนาน น่าจะเข้าใจมากขึ้นนิดหน่อย แต่ก็ยังปวดหัวถ้าต้องถ่ายทอดความคิดของฮาราเวย์เป็นภาษาไทยอยู่ดี ใครสนใจแนะนำให้ลองอ่านบทสัมภาษณ์กับ Wolfe ตอนท้ายดูก่อนครับ ถ้าเข้าใจบริบทของงานจะเก็ทขึ้นว่าฮาราเวย์พยายามเสนออะไร นิดนึง
August 1, 2018
One of the most transformative texts I've read in years. Cannot recommend highly enough
August 6, 2018
3.5 stars
I think I need to re-read the cyborg manifesto. There's a lot in this book!
I think I need to re-read the cyborg manifesto. There's a lot in this book!
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