Almost the same, but not quite

Ontological politics of recognition in modern science fiction

Bibliographic Data

ID4367516
AuthorsIngvil Hellstrand (0000-0002-1959-9258, University of Stavanger, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume17
Issue3
Pages251-267
Publication date2016-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-7001 • E-ISSN: 1741-2773
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1464700116666240
OpenAlexW2515698440
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited18

This article explores how issues of 'not quite human-ness' expose the conditions of possibility of being considered human; of human ontology. I refer to these dynamics for identifying sameness and difference as ontological politics of recognition. Tracing the genealogies of passing, I situate passing and Othering socio-political regulation and ideological frameworks for conceptualising ontology. I am particularly concerned with how the notion of ontology is bound up in questions of race and gender, and with the entanglements of technology and biology that can destabilise apparently fixed boundaries between the (natural/normative) human and its (constructed/abnormal) Others. I identify three trajectories of passing as human in the histories of science fiction. The first trajectory discusses ontological mimicry: the ways in which the non-human attempts to be like the human. The second trajectory addresses how passing as human relies on a Butlerian performativity: doing human-ness by complying with the regulatory frames for appearances and practices. The final trajectory discusses what is at stake in contemporary ontological politics of recognition: a renegotiation of human supremacy through an emphasis on collectivity and collaboration rather that singularity and boundedness

Epistemology · Ideology · Normative · Ontology · Performativity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Law · Philosophy · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction

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