posthumanism

Posthuman Aesthetics: A Postscript on Decadent Naturalism

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Armando Perez Crespo 
Associate Professor, Department of Art and Management, Universidad de Guanajuato, Mexico.

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 17, Issue 2, 2025. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v17n2.01g
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Abstract

Posthumanism does not exist as a human reality at any tangible level whatsoever, except insofar as there are some very elementary robotic and self-regulatory applications of that technology in the real world, such as in interactive robotic scenarios of offices and restaurants or Robotic Cafes of Tokyo city. Thus,  posthumanism remains an imagined terminology, based on cybernetic theorizing with no directly available experiences, nor repercussions, of that imagination in the technosphere. The originary meaning of a cultural posthumanism must be traced to Ihab Hassan’s script for the University of Wisconsin skit, which was designed essentially as an explicatory, parodic drama on the figure of Prometheus as a symbol of ‘humanism.’ Unfortunately, the current literature on posthuman aesthetics has not denounced neoliberal variations of the concept of body and the Self. What are the prototypes on which posthumanism might evolve in the global South? If an erroneous version of posthumanism is discarded, other values of primitive human naturalism may be sought in the new art.

Keywords: Posthumanism, posthuman aesthetics, technosphere, technology

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Funding: No funding was received for this research.
Article History: Received: 03 March 2025. Revised: 10 May 2025. Accepted: 12 May 2025. First published: 21 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 by the author/s.
License: License Aesthetix Media Services, India. Distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Published by: Aesthetix Media Services, India 
Citation: Crespo, A. P. (2025). Posthuman Aesthetics: A Postscript on Decadent Naturalism. Rupkatha Journal, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v17n2.01g

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Frankenstein’s Avatars: Posthuman monstrosities in Indian science fiction cinema

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Abhishek V. Lakkad
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DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v10n2.23

Received January 31, 2018; Revised April 22, 2018; Accepted May 19, 2018; Published May 26, 2018.

Abstract

This paper engages with ‘Frankenstein’ as a narrative structure in Indian popular cinema, in the context of posthumanism. Scholarship pertaining to monsters/monstrosity in Indian films has generally been addressed within the horror genre. However, the present paper aspires to understand monstrosity by locating its origins in science and technology through Frankenstein-like characters, thus shifting the locus of examining monstrosity from the usual confines of horror to the domain of science fiction. The paper contends Enthiran/Robot (Shankar 2010 Tamil/Hindi) as an emblematic instance of posthuman monstrosity that employs a Frankenstein narrative. The paper hopes to bring out the significance of cinematic imagination concerning posthuman monsters, to engage with collective social fears and anxieties about various cutting-edge technologies as well as other socio-cultural concerns at the interface of science, technology, body and the society/nation.

Keywords: Frankenstein, Posthumanism, Monstrosity, Indian popular cinema, Science Fiction

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Manoj Kumar Behera

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DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n1.12

Received September 14, 2016; Revised April 5, 2017; Accepted April 11, 2017; Published May 7, 2017.

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This paper explores the possibility of posthuman subjects only in kinship and connectedness. By analyzing few characters from Butler’s novel Clay’s Ark I shall explore the continuous human effort that marginalizes non-humans in our world. I will also attempt to find out how few characters deny crossing species boundaries to remain in a state of pure humans. I use discourses like Animal studies and Posthumsnism to demonstrate that life exists in connection, kinship and symbiosis. We can find human qualities in animals and the animal qualities in humans. In the conclusion I suggest that we are always in a process of becoming and every subject needs to accept co-evolution, connectedness instead of autonomous identity in order to enter into a posthuman world.

Keywords: Animal studies, posthumanism, symbiosis, kinship, co-evolution, hybrid, enhancement.

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