Humanimalities in liquid-modern times:

men, animals and machines

Authors

  • Márcia Seabra Neves

Keywords:

animal, human, artifact, portuguese literature

Abstract

In the last decades, a true conceptual reshaping of the binary relationship animal/human has taken place, challenging the boundaries that have always divided both poles. This blurring of borders has become increasingly problematic in a highly mechanized society in which scientific progress and new technologies have revolutionized both the theory and nature pertaining to the animal-subject. The emergence of autonomous robotics and life biotechnology manipulation have given rise to the appearance of hybrid creatures that render the distinction between the natural and the artificial problematic, thereby forcing us to rethink the concept of animality, as well as our relations with the animal which, in the framework of hypermodernity, have been subject to the man/animal/machine triangle. In this article, we will shed some light on the fictional representation of this ontological paradigm shift, by drawing on novels by José Saramago (O ano de 1993) and Gonçalo M. Tavares (Animalescos).

Author Biography

  • Márcia Seabra Neves

    Investigadora. Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas – Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Instituto de Estudos de Literatura e Tradição. Trabalho financiado por fundos nacionais através da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., no âmbito da Norma Transitória – DL 57/2016/CP1453/CT0037.

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Published

2020-12-01

Issue

Section

HISTORIA

How to Cite

Humanimalities in liquid-modern times:: men, animals and machines. (2020). Revista Latinoamericana De Estudios Críticos Animales, 7(2). https://revistaleca.org/index.php/leca/article/view/178