Feminist Theory: Contemporary Engagements (988:302) Fall 2013
Feminism and Nonhumans: Animals, Objects, Environments
Monday/Wednesday 3:55-5:15 p.m.
Heldrich Science Building (HSB) 204
Office Hours: by appointment
Instructor: Stephen Seely
Email: sdseely@eden.rutgers.edu
“If you ever get close to a human
and human behaviour
be ready to get confused
there's definitely no logic
to human behaviour”
--Björk, “Human Behaviour”
From its earliest incarnations, feminist theory has offered a major intervention into the conception
of “Man” developed in the European Enlightenment—a conception that purports to be universal,
while simultaneously producing and excluding various “Others” (e.g., women, people of color,
animals, and so on). In the past few decades, however, several theorists have extended their critique
to the problematic assumptions inherent in the conception of “Woman” that has been central to
both feminist theory and politics. In fact, much of the most recent work in feminist theory has
turned to the status of nonhumans—animals, objects, technologies, and environments—in feminism
(and in political theory more generally). What does it mean to decenter the human in feminist
theory? Does retaining a humanist subject in feminist theory ultimately rely on the same
exclusionary conception of Enlightenment “Man” that feminism has long sought to overcome?
How can the insights of decades of feminist theory help us think differently about animals, objects,
and environments and about our relations with them? How can an attention to nonhumanity
transform our theoretical understandings of gender, sexuality, embodiment, life, ethics and
responsibility? And, ultimately, how can rethinking our relations to the various nonhumans with
which we live help us think differently about what it means to be human?
In this course, we will explore these questions by looking at some of the most contemporary trends
in feminist and queer theory, as well as art, film, literature, and music. We will begin by considering
the role of nonhumans in the birth of modern humanism in European philosophy (which is, of
course, also the beginning of feminism’s genealogy). We will then look at several critiques of this
version of humanism that have been influential in feminist theory, before turning to the most recent
work in the “nonhumanist turn” in gender and cultural studies. Throughout the course, we will
focus on three major strands of “nonhumanist” theory: critical animal studies, science and
technology studies, and ecology.
Course Design Each one of our topics is designed to allow us to explore some of the major
discussions and debates within feminist theory/gender studies. Our material will be broad and
interdisciplinary, culled from the sciences, philosophy, media and cultural studies, the social sciences,
the arts, and the humanities. During each class session, we will look at a set of questions or themes:
how they are addressed in the assigned readings, how they are related to our previous and future
material, to current events, and to personal experience.
Each class session will consist of some lecture and some class discussion, some more than others
depending on the material. I expect engaged participation from the class at all times.
Attendance Required, not optional. A portion of your final grade will be based on attendance and
participation. You may have three “no questions asked” absences (for anything from a funeral or illness,
to you didn’t do the reading or you are traveling). After this, you will receive a half-grade deduction
from your final grade for every absence (e.g., if your final grade is an A, you will be dropped to a B+
with your fourth absence. Additionally, this means that with 10 absences, you will automatically fail
the course).
I also expect that the attendance is prepared and engaged. This means that you:
• have read the assigned material closely and carefully
• have thought about the material in relation to the day’s questions and themes
• are prepared to contribute critical comments or questions about the material
• are awake and focused during the class session
• are on time and remain in the classroom until the end of the session
Reading Again, required. Full disclosure: there is a lot of reading in this course! Indeed, the major work
in this class consists of close and engaged readings of the assigned texts. The readings are
numerous, diverse, and difficult, yet always engaging (and often fun). We will work through them
together, but a commitment to the material is expected from you. If you cannot, or don’t want to,
make this commitment, please reconsider taking this course now. All assigned readings are to be
completed before class on the day they are to be discussed.
While reading, students should keep track of key ideas, questions, and complications in each text.
For each class session, I have provided some questions and themes that we will address through the
readings and the course discussion. These should be kept in mind while reading the texts and
preparing for class. Students should always approach the text with a critical eye: ask why a text is
being written and why I might have assigned it. What are the stakes involved in the text? How does
the text relate to others that we have read and to our course topics? Students should bring their
criticism, questions, and comments into our discussions.
Required Texts We will cover the following texts extensively or completely. They are all easily
available to purchase inexpensively (e.g., Amazon.com), so please do so or make arrangements to
acquire them another way (e.g., the library).
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Jakob von Uexküll, A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2010) [ISBN: 0816659001]
Eva Hornung, Dog Boy: A Novel (Bloomsbury Paperbacks, 2010) [ISBN: 1408802864]
Elizabeth Grosz, Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2008) [ISBN: 0231145187]
Donna Haraway, When Species Meet (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
2008) [ISBN: 0816650462]
Zakes Mda, The Whale Caller: A Novel (Picador, 2006) [ISBN: 0816650462]
Lynn Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution (New York: Basic Books,
1999) [ISBN: 0465072720]
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Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (New York: Anchor Books, 2004) [ISBN:
0385721676
Michel Serres, Malfeasance: Appropriation Through Pollution? (Stanford University Press,
2010) [ISBN: 0804773034]
Octavia Butler, Dawn (Xenogenesis, Book 1) (New York: Warner Books, 1987) [ISBN:
0446603775
Björk, Biophilia (Nonesuch Records, 2011) [ASIN: B005ELQVGW]
All other assigned readings will be posted on the Sakai site in PDF format. If you foresee any
difficulties in accessing any of the readings, please see me to make alternative arrangements. You
must bring the assigned texts with you to class each day.
Facilitation Each student will select one course session to facilitate. The facilitation will consist
simply of selecting 3-5 questions based on the reading material to open the course discussion.
Students will be responsible for developing their questions and for directing the course discussion
for approximately 20-30 minutes.
Essay Students will write one 10-12 page research paper. Students will select their own topic
based on their interest in the class material and must have their topic approved by me before Thanksgiving
Break (11/25). More detailed instructions will be distributed in class at a later date. Students should
familiarize themselves with the university writing center and avail themselves of its services.
Grade Distribution
100 points for participation
100 points for final paper
100 points for facilitation
Classroom Decorum We will be discussing texts and issues that can be, at times, controversial.
Each one of us comes to the classroom with our own experiences, thoughts, interpretations,
opinions, and struggles. This class will be a place where all of this can, and will, be affirmed. I will,
however, not tolerate any offensive, derogatory, or dismissive comments toward other students.
In order to maintain fully engaged participation from all students, and to minimize distractions, no
computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices will be allowed in the classroom.
Academic Integrity All students should familiarize themselves with the Rutgers policy on academic
integrity at http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/integrity.shtml. Any student found in violation of
this policy will automatically fail the course and will be penalized according to the guidelines laid out by
the university. There should be absolutely no reason whatsoever to plagiarize, cheat, or lie in this
course: I will be incredibly understanding if you approach me with any issues prior to turning in an
assignment. I understand that stressful situations occur throughout the semester, and I will offer any
assistance I can, from deadline extensions to writing/study advice and beyond. Please do not
hesitate to approach me if you have any issues during the course. Because of this flexibility,
however, I will not tolerate any academic dishonesty whatsoever. If you have any doubt that you a
plagiarizing, CITE (or contact me before submitting your assignment)!
COURSE SCHEDULE (subject to change!)
W
4 Sep.
Course Introduction and Syllabus
M
9 Sep.
European Philosophy & “the Animal” Pt I: The Making of Humanism
*René Descartes, “Part Five” from The Discourse on Method (1637)
*Immanuel Kant, “On the Character of the Species” from Anthropology From
a Pragmatic Point of View (1798)
*Martin Heidegger, excerpts from The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics
(1929)
*Jacques Lacan, excerpt from “The Function and Field of Speech and
Language in Psychoanalysis” (1953)
W
11 Sep.
European Philosophy & “the Animal” Pt II: An Alternative Genealogy
*Michel de Montaigne, excerpt from An Apology for Raymond Sebond (1580)
*Charles Darwin, “Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower
Animals” from Descent of Man (1871)
*Friedrich Nietzsche, “O My Animals” (selected excerpts from Nietzsche’s
writings on animals)
Recommended: Elizabeth Grosz, The Nick of Time: Politics, Evolution and the
Untimely (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2004; Becoming Undone:
Darwinian Reflections on Life, Politics, and Art (Durham NC: Duke University
Press, 2011); Vanessa Lemm, Nietzsche’s Animal Philosophy: Culture, Politics and
the Animality of the Human Being (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008);
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006)
M
16 Sep.
Deconstructing “the Animal” in European Philosophy
*Jacques Derrida, “The Animal That Therefore I Am (More to Follow)”
Critical Inquiry, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Winter, 2002), pp. 369-418
*Jacques Derrida & Elisabeth Roudinesco, “Violence Against Animals” from
For What Tomorrow…: A Dialogue (2004)
Recommended: Jacques Derrida, The Animal That Therefore I Am (New York:
Fordham University Press, 2008); Leonard Lawlor, This is Not Sufficient: An
Essay on Animality and Human Nature in Derrida (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2007)
W
18 Sep.
Animals and Ethics
* Hélène Cixous, “Stigmata: Job the Dog,” Philosophy Today, Vol. 41, No. 1
(Spring, 1997), pp. 12-17
*Luce Irigaray, “Animal Compassion,” from Animal Philosophy (2004)
*Emmanuel Lévinas, “The Name of a Dog; or, Natural Rights” from Difficult
Freedom: Essays on Judaism (1975)
*Emmanuel Lévinas, “The Paradox of Morality: an Interview with
Emmanuel Lévinas” from The Provocation of Levinas (1986)
Recommended: Max Hantel, “Bobby Between Deleuze and Lévinas, or
Ethics Becoming-Animal,” Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, Vol.
18. No. 2 (2013), pp. 105-126.
M
23 Sep.
Animal Worlds
*Jakob von Uexküll, A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans (1934)
Recommended: Giorgio Agamben, The Open: Man and Animal (Stanford
University Press, 2003); Dorion Sagan, “Introduction: Umwelt After
Uexküll” in A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2011).
W
25 Sep.
Becoming-Animal
*Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari, excerpts of “Becoming-Intense, BecomingAnimal, Becoming-Imperceptible…” from A Thousand Plateaus (1980)
*Angela Carter, “The Tiger’s Bride” (1979)
*Watch Grizzly Man, dir. Werner Herzog (2005)
*Watch “A is for Animal” from Deleuze’s Abecedaire (1988)
Recommended: Lori Brown, “Becoming-Animal in the Flesh: Expanding the
Ethical Reach of Deleuze and Guattari’s Tenth Plateau,” PhaenEx, Vol. 2,
No. 2 (Fall/Winter, 2007), pp. 260-278.
M
30 Sep.
*Eva Hornung, Dog Boy: A Novel (2010)
W
2 Oct.
*Eva Hornung, Doy Boy: A Novel (2010)
M
7 Oct.
Animality and Art
*Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari, “Of the Refrain” from A Thousand Plateaus
(1980)
*Gilles Deleuze, “Body, Meat, and Spirit: Becoming Animal” from Francis
Bacon: The Logic of Sensation (1981)
* Elizabeth Grosz, Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth
(2008) – Ch. 1
W
9 Oct.
*Elizabeth Grosz, Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth
(2008) – Ch. 2-3
*Björk, Biophilia (2011) [listen to the album and watch the accompanying
videos]
M
14 Oct.
Humans as Companions: Ways of Living with Animals Pt. I
*Donna Haraway, When Species Meet (2008) – Ch. 1-3
W
16 Oct.
*Donna Haraway, When Species Meet (2008) – Ch. 4-5, 12
Recommended: Donna Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention
of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1990);
Modest_Witness@Second_Millenium.FemaleMan®Meets_OncoMouse™: Feminism
and Technoscience (New York: Routledge, 1997); The Companion Species Manifesto:
Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness (Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2003).
M
21 Oct.
Living with Animals, Living with Technology
*Zakes Mda, The Whale Caller (2006)
W
23 Oct.
*Zakes Mda, The Whale Caller (2006)
*Drucilla Cornell, “Is Technology a Fatal Destiny? Heidegger’s Relevance for
South Africa and for all ‘Developing’ Countries” (2013)
M
28 Oct.
Becoming-Together: Co-Evolution and Symbiogenesis
*Lynn Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution (1999)
W
30 Oct.
*Lynn Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution (1999)
M
4 Nov.
Humans as Hosts: Ways of Living with Animals Pt. II
*Ed Cohen, “The Paradoxical Politics of Viral Containment; or, How Scale
Undoes Us One and All,” Social Text, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring, 2011), pp. 15-35
* Dorion Sagan, “Metametazoa: Biology and Multiplicity” from Cosmic
Apprentice: Dispatches from the Edges of Science (1992)
Recommended: Patricia Clough & Jasbir Puar, (eds.), Viral: A Special Issue of
Women’s Studies Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 1-2 (Spring/Summer, 2012); Julie
Livingston & Jasbir Puar (eds.), Interspecies: A Special Issue of Social Text, Vol.
29, No. 1 (Spring, 2011).
W
6 Nov.
Rethinking Objects Pt. I: Feminist “New” Materialism
*Jane Bennett, “The Force of Things: Steps toward an Ecology of Matter,”
Political Theory, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Jun., 2004), pp. 347-372.
*Karen Barad, “Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of
How Matter Comes to Matter,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society,
vol. 28, no. 3 (2003), pp. 801-831.
Recommended: Diana Coole & Samantha Frost, New Materialisms: Ontology,
Agency and Politics (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2011); Rick Dolphijn
& Iris van der Tuin, New Materialism: Interviews and Cartographies (Open
Humanities Press, 2012); Stacy Alaimo & Susan Heckman (eds.), Material
Feminisms (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2008); Jane Bennett,
Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham NC: Duke University
Press, 2010).
M
11 Nov.
Nonhuman Sex, Nonhuman Feminism
*Rosi Braidotti, “Meta(l)morphoses: Women, Aliens, Machines,” “Animals
and Other Anomalies,” and “The Cosmic Buzz of Insects” from Nomadic
Theory: The Portable Rosi Braidotti (2011)
Recommended: Rosi Braidotti, The Posthuman (Cambridge UK: Polity, 2013).
W
13 Nov.
*Luciana Parisi, “The Nanoengineering of Desire” (2008)
*Myra Hird, “Animal Transsex,” Australian Feminist Studies, Vol. 21, No. 49
(March 2006, 35-50)
*Jussi Parikka, “Insects, Sex, and Biodigitality in Lynn Hershman Leeson’s
Teknolust,” Postmodern Culture, Vol. 17, No. 2 (2007)
*Watch Teknolust, dir. Lynn Hershman Leeson (2002)
Recommended: Noreen Giffney & Myra Hird (eds.), Queering the Non/Human
(Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, 2008); Luciana Parisi, Abstract Sex: Philosophy,
Biotechnology, and the Mutations of Desire (London: Continuum, 2004)
M
18 Nov.
Reconstructing Sex, Gender, and the Human
*Octavia Butler, Dawn (Xenogenesis, Book 1), (1987)
W
20 Nov.
*Octavia Butler, Dawn (Xenogenesis, Book 1), (1987)
Recommended: Ronald Bogue, “Alien Sex: Octavia Butler and Deleuze and
Guattari’s Polysexuality” from Frida Beckman (Ed.) Deleuze and Sex
(Edinburgh University Press, 2011)
M
25 Nov.
Rethinking Objects Pt. II: Feminist & Queer Relations with “Things”
*Eva Hayward, “Spider City Sex,” Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist
Theory, Vol. 20, No. 3 (November 2010), pp. 225-251
*Mel Y. Chen, “Toxic Animacies, Inanimate Affections,” GLQ: A Journal of
Gay and Lesbian Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2-3 (2011), pp. 265-286
*Stephen D. Seely, “How Do You Dress a Body without Organs? Affective
Fashion and Nonhuman Becoming,” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, Vol. 41,
No. 1-2 (Spring/Summer 2013), 249-267
Recommended: Mel Y. Chen, Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer
Affect (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2012); Stacy Alaimo, Bodily
Natures: Science, Environment, and the Material Self (Indianapolis: University of
Indiana Press, 2010); Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands & Bruce Erickson (eds.),
Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire (Indianapolis: University of Indiana
Press, 2010)
M
2 Dec.
Speculative Visions of an Inhuman Future
*Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2004)
W
4 Dec
*Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2004)
M
9 Dec.
Rethinking the Nature of the Social Contract
*Michel Serres, Malfeasance: Appropriation Through Pollution? (2010)
*Luce Irigaray, excerpts from In the Beginning, She Was (2013)
Recommended: Michel Serres, The Natural Contract (University of Michigan
Press, 1995); Luce Irigaray, Sharing the World (London: Continuum, 2008).
W
11 Dec.
Toward an Ecological Future
*Félix Guattari, “The Three Ecologies” (1989)
*Jeannette Armstrong, “‘Sharing One Skin’: Okangan Community” (1997)
*Édouard Glissant, excerpts from Poetics of Relation (1990)