From Material to Posthuman Ecocriticism: Hybridity, Stories, Natures

By highlighting the intersections between material ecocriticism and post- humanism, this chapter explores how ecocriticism is becoming more post-human and post-natural in its questioning of the entrenched notion of the human, as well as the blurred boundaries between inorganic and organic matter. Posthuman ecocriti- cism expands the material ecocritical vision of storied matter to critically discern the cultural implications of currently emerging posthuman agencies - such as synthetic matter responding to stimuli and exhibiting signs of spontaneous activity - that osten- sibly transfigure human ecologies and material-discursive practices. With selected literary texts that are labeled posthuman novels, and bio-technological examples, the chapter aims to shed critical light on how posthuman ecologies accentuate the impact of bios-zoe-techno-eco-cultures in re-imagining what it means to be human, or non- human, in a world of hybrid contigurations, strange natures, and stories