USD $119.00
Mimetic Posthumanism
Homo Mimeticus 2.0 in Art, Philosophy and Technics
Series: - Critical Posthumanisms, Volume: 5
Volume Editor:
It is tempting to affirm that on and about November 2022 (post)human character changed. The revolution in A.I. simulations certainly calls for an update of the ancient realization that humans are imitative animals, or
homo mimeticus. But the mimetic turn in posthuman studies is not limited to A.I.: from simulation to identification, affective contagion to viral mimesis, robotics to hypermimesis, the essays collected in this volume articulate the multiple facets of
homo mimeticus 2.0. Challenging rationalist accounts of autonomous originality internal to the history of
Homo sapiens, this volume argues from different—artistic, philosophical, technological—perspectives that the all too human tendency to imitate is, paradoxically, central to our ongoing process of becoming posthuman.
Nidesh Lawtoo, Professor of European Literature and Culture at Leiden University, is a philosopher and cultural critic. He is the author of numerous books that open up the transdisciplinary field of mimetic studies, including
Homo Mimeticus: A New Theory of Imitation (Leuven UP, 2022).
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Mimetic Posthumanism: An Introduction
Nidesh Lawtoo
Posthuman Mimesis: A Dialogic Prelude with Katherine Hayles
N. Katherine Hayles and Nidesh Lawtoo
Part 1
The Mimetic Turn in Posthuman Art
1 Alchemical Shadows: Homo Mimeticus and Eidolons of Artificial Intelligence
Patricia Pisters
2 Toward Posthuman Aesthetics: The Flesh of the World in Auguste Rodin’s Le Penseur and The Thinking Robot
Nikoleta Zampaki and Peggy Karpouzou
3 From the Parasite to the BwO: Subversive Mimicry in Viral Zombies
María del Carmen Molina Barea
4 Be/Longing in the Digital Divide: A Mimetic Play for Somatic Intimacy
Majero Bouman
5 Animation and the Mimetic Posthuman: Pandemic Vulnerabilities Mirrored by Music and Dance
Andreea Stoicescu
Part 2
Mimetic Re -Turns in Posthuman Philosophy
6 A Genealogy for Homo Mimeticus 2.0
Nidesh Lawtoo
7 Mimicry to Imitation, Mimesis to Simulation: An Evolutionary Outlook on Copying
Jean-Marie Schaeffer
8 Nietzsche’s Legacy for Posthuman Mimesis: Metamorphoses, Embodiment, and Immanence
Marina Garcia-Granero
9 Mimesis, Posthumanism, and “the Absolute Antecedent”: Some Thoughts on Jacques Derrida’s “Advances”
Ivan Callus
10 Figuration, or the Desire of the Posthuman
Stefan Herbrechter
Part 3
Technics Reloading Mimesis
11 Technics and Mimesis: Promethean Self-Knowledge in the Anthropocene
Nidesh Lawtoo
12 Noomimesis: The Political Economy of the Meaningless Sign
Zeigam Azizov
13 Posthuman Agency and Techno-Mimetism
Diego Scalco
14 Imitating Nature through Technology: On Mimesis, Innovation, and Environmental Ethics in the Anthropocene
Philipp Höfele
15
ai
and Reverse Mimesis: From Human Imitation to Human Subjugation?
Kevin LaGrandeur
Coda: Philosophical and Mimetic Posthumanism: A Dialogue
Francesca Ferrando and Nidesh Lawtoo
Index
Notes on Contributors
Mimetic Posthumanism: An Introduction
Nidesh Lawtoo
Posthuman Mimesis: A Dialogic Prelude with Katherine Hayles
N. Katherine Hayles and Nidesh Lawtoo
Part 1
The Mimetic Turn in Posthuman Art
1 Alchemical Shadows: Homo Mimeticus and Eidolons of Artificial Intelligence
Patricia Pisters
2 Toward Posthuman Aesthetics: The Flesh of the World in Auguste Rodin’s Le Penseur and The Thinking Robot
Nikoleta Zampaki and Peggy Karpouzou
3 From the Parasite to the BwO: Subversive Mimicry in Viral Zombies
María del Carmen Molina Barea
4 Be/Longing in the Digital Divide: A Mimetic Play for Somatic Intimacy
Majero Bouman
5 Animation and the Mimetic Posthuman: Pandemic Vulnerabilities Mirrored by Music and Dance
Andreea Stoicescu
Part 2
Mimetic Re -Turns in Posthuman Philosophy
6 A Genealogy for Homo Mimeticus 2.0
Nidesh Lawtoo
7 Mimicry to Imitation, Mimesis to Simulation: An Evolutionary Outlook on Copying
Jean-Marie Schaeffer
8 Nietzsche’s Legacy for Posthuman Mimesis: Metamorphoses, Embodiment, and Immanence
Marina Garcia-Granero
9 Mimesis, Posthumanism, and “the Absolute Antecedent”: Some Thoughts on Jacques Derrida’s “Advances”
Ivan Callus
10 Figuration, or the Desire of the Posthuman
Stefan Herbrechter
Part 3
Technics Reloading Mimesis
11 Technics and Mimesis: Promethean Self-Knowledge in the Anthropocene
Nidesh Lawtoo
12 Noomimesis: The Political Economy of the Meaningless Sign
Zeigam Azizov
13 Posthuman Agency and Techno-Mimetism
Diego Scalco
14 Imitating Nature through Technology: On Mimesis, Innovation, and Environmental Ethics in the Anthropocene
Philipp Höfele
15
Kevin LaGrandeur
Coda: Philosophical and Mimetic Posthumanism: A Dialogue
Francesca Ferrando and Nidesh Lawtoo
Index
The book is written for an academic readership in posthuman studies and should be of interest to academic libraries, humanities institutes, institutes for the future, as well as scholars and (graduate) student working in the areas of AI, digital humanities, posthumanism, transhumanism, critical theory, cultural studies, continental philosophy, aesthetics, film and media studies, and mimetic studies