Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology

Environmental Cultures

by Astrida Neimanis, Greg Garrard (Editor), Richard Kerridge (Editor)

Water is the element that, more than any other, ties human beings in to the world around them – from the oceans that surround us to the water that makes up most of our bodies. Exploring the cultural and philosophical implications of this fact, Bodies of Water develops an innovative new mode of posthuman feminist phenomenology that understands our bodies as being fundamentally part of the natural world and not separate from or privileged to it.

Building on the works by Luce Irigaray, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Gilles Deleuze, Astrida Neimanis's book is a landmark study that brings a new feminist perspective to bear on ideas of embodiment and ecological ethics in the posthuman critical moment.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Feminism, Theory, Ecology, Research, Nature

248 pages, Paperback

Published May 30, 2019

Reviews

[Francesco Iorianni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspiriert von Neimanis Artikel 'Hydrofeminism: Or on becoming a body of water' habe ich mich an die 5 Jahre später veröffentliche Monografie zum selben Thema gewagt. Die Ideen und Thesen sind die gleichen, nur gehen sie weitaus mehr ins Detail und geben auch einen stärkeren theoretischen Hintergrund. Während mich der Artikel kurz und sehr präzise in die posthumanistische Thematik einführen konnte, hat mich diese Monografie etwas verloren. Viele Kapitel und Ansätze waren sehr spannend, andere hingegen etwas kompliziert und meiner Meinung auch redundant. Dennoch eine Empfehlung für diejenigen, die tiefer in die Abgründe einer aquatischen Genealogie abtauchen wollen.

[mondilirondi]

lo doy por acabado pq ya me he leído los capítulos que me interesaban jiji me parece muy fructífera la idea de the unknowability of water y más la de que la corporalidad y el embodiment no son condiciones exclusivamente humanas!!!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

okay oops I shouldn't have read the first 100 some pages of this bit by bit before falling asleep at night over the course of two months because I truly didn't understand the majority of Neimanis setting up her theoretical framework (not that I really get Deleuze on my best days) and was dismissing this text as cyclical academic jargon soup (because she does use the term soup, or soup-y very, very often) until I started reading it in the mornings rather than the evenings... and then suddenly I started *getting* way more out of the text and found it to be super relevant to my own current positions and thesis about beach grass//landscapes. Maybe my own shortcomings in understanding the theoretical setup results in this, but I still think the queer reading of bodies of water wasn't really substantial or fleshed out (until perhaps the part about the queerness of creatures of the ocean). Nonetheless a radical exploration of our watery connections, cycles, repetitions and abilities and a necessary de-centering of humanist positivism when making sense of the degradation and commodification environment/natural world and our place in it

[Jerrica · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea that we are all bodies of water that receive and give flow to others is rich in potential but the text was mired in nonsensical buzzwords. It also dismissed scientific findings and ignored current scientific data at times; I think embracing science and doing some actual research into current stances on geological epochs and geobiology would have strengthened the piece and made it more than just a very abstract think piece. Don't get me wrong, I love the humanities, but this piece wandered too far into those waters (haha) to not recognize and to even insult related work that scientists have done.

[Margaryta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neimanis' book is a wonderful complement to all the scientific research being done on concepts like the Anthropocene and oceanic life. "Bodies of Water" is an excitingly interdisciplinary book that takes the provocative question - how can our thinking change if we see ourselves as bodies of water that are always in relation to other bodies of water? - and explores it through multiple facets, including the fact that gestationality is not confined to the biologically female body. It's a text I can see wanting to have on hand at all times because of the versatility of Neimanis' arguments but also the depth of their applicability to various fields, scenarios, arguments.

[Carla Daza]

Don't think it's fair to give a rating since I did not finish but man, it could use more accessible language.

[Alexander North · Rating 2 out of 5]

Who even thinks like this? Many great points to be made but it kinda takes some mental gymnastics to get there. Lots of jargon too…

[aslı · Rating 3 out of 5]

science and technology nightmare blunt rotation

[Hemel · Rating 4 out of 5]

'how does a visceral need to pee make the body move?' beautiful.