Being Posthuman: Ontologies of the Future

by Zahi Zalloua

Posthumanism is both a descriptive and a prescriptive term. Firstly, it registers a shift beginning in the late 1960s and epitomized by Foucault's “the death of Man”. Secondly, it refers to the future and a new relationship with the non-human, along with a different understanding of human exceptionalism.

In Being Ontologies of the Future , Zahi Zalloua interrogates this future and shows that “post-” does not necessarily mean 'after' or that what comes after is more advanced than what has gone before. He pursues this line of inquiry across four distinct, yet interrelated, cyborgs, animals, objects, and racialized and excluded 'others'. These figures disrupt the narrative of the 'human' and its singularity and by reading them together, Zalloua determines that it is only when posthumanist discourse is combined with psychoanalysis that subjectivity can be properly examined.

Genres: Philosophy

288 pages, Hardcover

Published January 14, 2021

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accessibly written and clearly organized, Zalloua's book offers a brisk introduction to current debates on the posthuman, reintroducing Lacanian psychoanalysis (via a dynamic reading of Žižek) to this lively arena.