Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Posthuman offers both an introduction and major contribution to contemporary debates on the posthuman. Digital 'second life', genetically modified food, advanced prosthetics, robotics and reproductive technologies are familiar facets of our globally linked and technologically mediated societies. This has blurred the traditional distinction between the human and its others, exposing the non-naturalistic structure of the human. The Posthuman starts by exploring the extent to which a post-humanist move displaces the traditional humanistic unity of the subject. Rather than perceiving this situation as a loss of cognitive and moral self-mastery, Braidotti argues that the posthuman helps us make sense of our flexible and multiple identities.

Braidotti then analyzes the escalating effects of post-anthropocentric thought, which encompass not only other species, but also the sustainability of our planet as a whole. Because contemporary market economies profit from the control and commodification of all that lives, they result in hybridization, erasing categorical distinctions between the human and other species, seeds, plants, animals and bacteria. These dislocations induced by globalized cultures and economies enable a critique of anthropocentrism, but how reliable are they as indicators of a sustainable future?

The Posthuman concludes by considering the implications of these shifts for the institutional practice of the humanities. Braidotti outlines new forms of cosmopolitan neo-humanism that emerge from the spectrum of post-colonial and race studies, as well as gender analysis and environmentalism. The challenge of the posthuman condition consists in seizing the opportunities for new social bonding and community building, while pursuing sustainability and empowerment.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgements (p. vi)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• 1 Post-Humanism: Life beyond the Self (p. 13)
• 2 Post-Anthropocentrism: Life beyond the Species (p. 55)
• 3 The Inhuman: Life beyond Death (p. 105)
• 4 Posthuman Humanities: Life beyond Theory (p. 143)
• Conclusion (p. 186)
• References (p. 198)
• Index (p. 214)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

In this argumentative survey, Braidotti (gender studies, and founding director of Centre for Humanities, Utrecht Univ., the Netherlands) offers herself as "a tracker and a cartographer," mapping a course through the cluster of subjects bound up in the posthuman. Known for her work at the intersection of feminist theory, cultural politics, and Continental philosophy, the author charts her personal trajectory through the Western intellectual, anti-humanist tradition, which she finds inadequate to today's technological and biological realities set in a global context. The posthuman outlines an affirmative, civically engaged mode of critique that Braidotti argues may open a way out of the current crisis in the humanities. Her discussion shows remarkable clarity and concision even as it lays out highly technical, complexly theoretical, and deeply interdisciplinary concepts. Given the breadth and intricacy of the material she covers, the signposts of Braidotti's argument may prove difficult for the uninitiated to follow. Still, this study has great value as an entry point for anyone engaged with the humanities and looking to its posthuman human future. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; researchers/faculty. T. J. Welsh Loyola University New Orleans