Abstract
Abstract The conceptualization of the notion of subjectivity within the Anthropocene finds in Rosi Braidotti’s posthumanism one of its most explicit and profuse modulations. This essay argues that Braidotti’s model powerfully accounts for the Anthropocene’s subjectivity by conceiving the “self” as a transversal multiplicity and its relationality to the “others” and the “world” as non-hierarchized by nature–culture distinctions; however, by being ontologically grounded on a neo-Spinozistic monism, Braidotti’s model blurs the notions of finitude, agency, and change, obscuring the possibility of critical dissent while decreasing the overall theory’s consistency. An alternative ontological model capitalizing on these elements can be found in Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) and its notion of withdrawal. By associating OOO’s non-onto-taxonomical pluralism with Braidotti’s posthuman subjectivity, this essay aims at ontologically discretizing the latter in order to overcome these limitations. Grounded on this association and invoking a narrative imaginary propelled by the Greek terms xenos (guest-friend) and xenia (hospitality), the article paves the way for a form of subjectivity deviating from Braidotti’s ecological model and defined as xenological, arguing that, within the context of the Anthropocene, it constitutes an adequate alternative to Braidotti’s subjectivity.
Highlights
For almost three decades the Continental philosopher and socio-political theoretician Rosi Braidotti has been one of the most lucid and stimulating voices in postmodern feminism
312 Jordi Vivaldi the convergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Sixth Extinction in these analyses, Braidotti scrutinizes the notion of the Anthropocene in light of what constitutes the basic research question of this essay: What forms of subjectivity are fuelled by a post-anthropocentric approach? How do we conceive the elements of creativity, imagination, subversion, desire and aspirations of the self, and its relation to others and to the world, in light of our entanglement with human and non-human beings? In brief: How do we engage with human subjectivity in the age of the Anthropocene?
Drawing on an argument developed through a close reading of Braidotti’s posthuman subjectivity, the central contribution of this essay consists in approaching these questions by proposing a model of subjectivity defined as xenological
Summary
For almost three decades the Continental philosopher and socio-political theoretician Rosi Braidotti has been one of the most lucid and stimulating voices in postmodern feminism. Drawing on an argument developed through a close reading of Braidotti’s posthuman subjectivity, the central contribution of this essay consists in approaching these questions by proposing a model of subjectivity defined as xenological In pursuit of this purpose, the text initially argues that, within Braidotti’s model, the transversal multiplicity of the self and its non-hierarchical relationality with the others and the world are worth preserving, since they powerfully account for crucial socio-political aspects of the Anthropocene. A subjectivity that is inexhaustible by any overarching ecology, accounting for the notions of self, others, and world in consonance with the concepts that are maintained from Braidotti’s model, while approaching its aforementioned limitations through OOO’s non-onto-taxonomical pluralism
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