European Posthumanism

by Stefan Herbrechter (Editor), Ivan Callus (Editor), Manuela Rossini (Editor)

In literary studies and beyond, ‘theory’ and its aftermaths have arguably been over-influenced by US- and UK-based institutions, publishers, journals, and academics. Yet the influence of theory in its Anglo-American forms has remained reliant on Continental European ideas. Similar patterns can be discerned within the latest theoretical paradigm – posthumanism. European ideas influence posthumanism’s challenge to established understandings of humanism, anthropomorphism, and anthropocentrism, which is characterised by the increased urgency and proliferation of questions such as ‘What does it mean to be human?’ and ‘What is the relationship between humans and their nonhuman others (machines, animals, plants, the inorganic, gods, systems, and various figures of liminality, from ghosts to angels, from cyborgs to zombies)?’ European Posthumanism examines the histories and geographies of posthumanism and looks at the genealogies which have been at work in the rise of posthumanist thought and culture. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of English Studies.

120 pages, Hardcover

Published May 11, 2016

About the author

Stefan Herbrechter is a freelance writer, academic, researcher and translator. Until 2014, he was Reader in Cultural Theory and Director of Postgraduate Studies (Media) at Coventry University. In 2015, he was a Senior Fellow at the IKKM in Weimar. Currently, he is a research fellow at Coventry University, Leeds Trinity University and Privatdozent at Heidelberg University.

He is the author and editor of a number of volumes, articles and contributions on literature, critical and cultural theory and cultural studies. Together with Ivan Callus, University of Malta he is editor and author of Critical Posthumanisms. He is also one of the co-directors of the Critical Posthumanism Network.