A literature review of posthumanist and new materialist research in applied linguistics

Abstract

ABSTRACT A growing interest in language and materiality has set in motion a paradigmatic shift in applied linguistics. In particular, increasing consideration is being given to relations between the social and material world by way of posthumanist and new materialist theories. As this scholarship is nascent, this literature review aims to understand how these theories are being put to work in applied linguistics research. To conduct the literature review, the authors reviewed a list of 237 journals and employed thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) to code and categorize over 100 articles that made use of posthumanism and the new materialisms. Findings showed that inroads for these theories are being created on a cline of inventiveness that operationalizes assemblage thinking, moves away from representational logic, and experiments with performative inquiry practices. Implications include the need to further explore how posthumanism and the new materialisms demand a rethinking of the field’s most taken-for-granted constructs along with how they have come to structure the design, implementation, and dissemination of applied linguistics research.