Classical Literature and Posthumanism

Giulia M. Chesi & Francesca Spiegal (eds.). (2019). London: Bloomsbury.

This volume explores the ways in which Classical texts can both develop and challenge the idea of the ‘Posthuman’ in literature, aiming to open up the discussion of the role of the non-human (e.g. animals, things, machines) in the same way that postmodernism allowed for separate discussions on different parts of the human self (e.g. race, gender, sexuality). The book divides itself into four sections, each of which focusses on different ways of separating humans from the world around them. Part 1 – “De/Humanization of Animals” – examines the subjectivity of identity, criticising and moving beyond ideas of anthropocentrism. Chapter 2 is particularly interesting in this regard with its discussion centred around (Pseudo-) Lucian’s Λούκιος ἢ Ὄνος (Lucius or The Donkey) which follows the story of Lucius who, once changed into a donkey, struggles to communicate human traits (e.g. laughter) with his new body. Part 2 – “The Monstrous” – focusses on the idea that while monstrosity is defined by its otherness and opposition to humanity, it is also necessary for ideas of human heroism and exceptionalism. Part 3 – “Bodies and Entanglements” – turns its attention to forms comprised of both human and non-human parts, with Chapter 17 providing a very engaging study of hybrid (‘cyborgic’) identity in the wake of bodily metamorphosis in the myth of Io. Finally, Part 4 – “Objects, Machines and Robotic Devices” – looks at the ways objects impact and shape human narratives (e.g. props in tragedy – Chapter 21).

Example quotation

The collection invites us to appraise the animal, monstrous and machinic otherness within the human: we need animals, monsters, objects and machines in order to define a space for the human. In this sense, the chapters compel us to ask whether discourses of Posthumanism might exceed the question of what it means to be human – just like they question the view by which the human is the centre of everything.

(pp.2-3)