Working towards the Posthumanities

Over the last thirty years in most advanced liberal democracies, the public
criticism of the Humanities has been increasing and a largely negative consensus
has emerged, especially among right–wing and populist political parties, that
the Humanities are not financially viable, that they are a luxurious hobby for the
privileged few and that they do not deserve public funding. In this article I will
first contextualize this debate in the larger frame of the question about the role
and function of the university in the Twenty–first century. I will subsequently
go on to argue a case for the relevance of the “new” Humanities, which I refer
to as “Posthumanities.” My general hypothesis is simple: the Humanities can
and will survive their present predicament and contradictions to the extent
that they will show the ability and willingness to undergo a major process of
transformation in response to both new technological advances and on–going
geo–political developments. We need schemes of thought and figurations that
enable us to account in empowering terms for the changes and transformations
currently under way. More importantly, we need a new definition of our
subjectivity in the direction of posthumanist and postanthropocentric
perspectives. In the main section of this paper I will give you some concrete
examples of new trends in what I have called the “Posthumanities.”