Modernist Post-Humanism

The Dialectic of Human Automation and Non-Human Animation in the Quay Brothers’ Street of Crocodiles

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21787376
AutoresSiamak Vahed (0000-0002-9633-6830, University of Tabriz, autor de correspondencia)
Año2026
Volumen21
Número1
Páginas84-97
Fecha de publicación2026-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnimation (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1746-8477 • E-ISSN: 1746-8485
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/17468477251413150
OpenAlexW7137002916
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas25

This article proposes a modernist post-humanist reading of the Quay Brothers’ stop-motion animation Street of Crocodiles (1986). The author pursues two objectives: first, to argue that modernist literature already contains post-humanist tendencies; and, second, to demonstrate this claim through a textual analysis of the Quay Brothers’ animated adaptation of Bruno Schulz’s modernist story. The analysis identifies two interrelated dialectical sets—textual and contextual—connecting the Quay Brothers’ work to the broader framework of modernism. The author shows that, in the film, a dialectic emerges between an anthropocentric, narrative-driven storyline and non-anthropomorphic, non-narrative animated motion. This internal tension reflects a larger dialectic within modernity itself: the automation of human life and the animation of non-human machines. The dynamics between these two dialectics give rise to a modernist post-humanist narrative in the film: while the human protagonist follows a circular path through space and ends without resolution, the non-human animated entities move cyclically through time, persisting into a post-human temporality

Animation · Contradiction · Dialectic · Modernity · Narrative · Cinema and Media Studies · Narrative Theory and Analysis · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction