Queer Posthumanism

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 4 turns to the critical alignment between queer theory and posthumanism. Drawing on theorists such as Patricia MacCormack and Rosi Braidotti, the chapter sets out key conceptual figures of queer posthumanism that cut across theory and cinema, including the cyborg, the monster, and the collective. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999) is addressed as a prototypical example of the cyborg’s queer potential and compared with Jonze’s later film Her (2013) and Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor (2020) to trace the analog to digital queering of heteronormative humanist selfhood across time, genre, and auteur preoccupations. The chapter then turns to the figures of the monster and collective within revolutionary films by independent queer auteurs. Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden, 1983) is discussed as a prototype of queer posthumanist vision in independent cinema for its genre hybridity, political fury, utopianism, and centering of collectivity. Bruce LaBruce’s zombie films, Otto; or, Up with Dead People (2008) and L.A. Zombie (2010), and the third film of Shu Lea Cheang’s postporn trilogy Fluidø (2017) are analyzed for the ways they use monstrosity, collectivity, and genre hybridity to achieve radical utopian queer posthuman ends. The chapter’s diverse examples demonstrate how film theorizes the intersection of the queer and posthuman as they transcend boundaries, upset dichotomies, and challenge the cisgender heterosexual male as the foundational figure of humanism.