While the fiction of J.G. Ballard has been primarily explored through postmodern criticism, his narratives and settings predict major issues concerning the contemporary discourse of posthumanism. His texts explore the escalating economic, social, and ecological crises converging within the material conditions of human urbanization and late capitalism. Nearly all of Ballard’s novels are as much about locations undergoing a crisis as they are about individuals or communities coming to embrace some extended period of human hysteria. His characters in The Drought, Concrete Island, and Super- Cannes, each progress through ecologically and socially alienating surroundings which invigorate them to act against classical humanism’s hegemonic and anthropocentric tendencies. By applying Henri Lefebvre’s spatial concept of “abstract space” to Ballard’s range of urban settings, this thesis investigates how Ballard’s early, middle, and late, novels continually put materiality, humanism, and technological landscapes, through different ecological and geopolitical crises in order to deconstruct a number of cultural and ideological concerns posthumanist studies seek to address.

As a feminist poststructural autoethnography of deafness in social work workplaces, this thesis sets out to map d/Deafness as a cracked subjectivity. Using the work of Rosi Braidotti and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I draw out configurations of d/Deafness as lack or cultural minority and split them apart. By positioning d/Deafness on a plane of immanence and employing specificity, I explore d/Deafness as a subjectivity constituted through space, place, time and encounters with other bodies. I argue that the constitution of material and cultural experiences of d/Deafness as specific allows for the articulation of spaces in between Deafness and hearing, disability and ability as spaces in and of themselves in order to think the new as well as to crack up fixed binaries informing traditional notions of what specific bodies can do. / Graduate

In this essay called I withdraw into the gap, which is also a crevice. A nomadic subject comes into being in Nina Bouraoui’s Sauvage, I investigate which aspects in the novel play an important part in relation to the protoganist Alya’s process of becoming a subject in the passage from childhood to adulthood. Through Rosi Braidotti’s theories on the nomadic becoming of a subject I investigate a becoming that is nonunitary, non-linear and constantly changing. This becoming happens in the novel between affects like fear, violence, desire and different experiences of time, and also through a non-chronological narrative and a language which can both deceive, and create the world.       My results show that becoming in Sauvage is about being aware of the outside boundaries and one’s own position in relation to those. For Alya, fear and desire work as transformative and transgressional aspects. In between her affective body and the world which tries to force its boundaries on her, she finds that in between those outside images and her inner affective response, there is a space, a gap, and in the movement between is where she becomes who she is in a process that is a constant negotiation. The subject that emerges in the end of the novel is not a unitary subject, but a nomadic one, that is constantly changing and becoming.

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This research is a curiosity for the spaces outside the gender binary, the spaces where an “I” and a “we” could manifest unencumbered by this hierarchical binary[1]. The binary is often in gender research considered a system of understanding sexed peoples in this world based on their differential position in relation to one another. Gender as a “social category imposed on a sexed body”[2] arose in academic usage by feminists in the 1980s, it was introduced to dismantle the idea of separate spheres, and yet it “does not have the power to address existing historical paradigms”[3] and has therefore remained anchored in the idea of two, the male and female identity, and even whilst the idea of male and female social identities has been expanded to contain other sexed and gendered bodies, , the idea of an agendered subject is sparsely addressed. In essence this work seeks to address the binary of existence and non-existence in the bio-social-psychological world that is gender studies, to attempt to find the alchemical magic that creates a new cartography of gender, or at least a sliver of new territory.                Gender is currently one of the base categories of identification in a world built on: §  religious narratives in which “God/s” made only man and woman.  §  biological determination which posits a dependent binary relationship based on gametes.  §  and systemic thinking grounded in Patriarchal thinking.  Whilst the spaces outside the gender binary have become more thinkable in recent decades with the advent of Transgender studies[4] as an academic field, Irigaray[5] offers that the space outside the binary structure offers only “social and psychological damage”[6] to anyone seeking to inhabit it. This thesis thus explores a particular identity cartography which I here call the alchemy of agender, in reference to the potentially mythical, potentially magical space outside of the “norm”.    This research does not claim to cover all theories of power, subjectivity, sexual difference, or the growing body of knowledge within gender studies, pertinently transgender studies, queer studies, and intersectional studies. Conversely, I start from lived experience, both my own; in encountering questions and concerns from the students I teach; and the lived experience of others which manifests in a desire of a community to speak themselves into existence.                In my 8 years of teaching variations of gender studies I have observed that the language and space young people have for imagining and queering their gender has steadily increased. Yet, agender is still very unexplored as a concept, with a constant question of “why do we need gender?” accompanying my student’s reflections. Throughout human history we have examples of agender/non-binary/queer/non-conforming individuals, creating an “I” and a “we” that is outside, beyond or uninhibited by the gender binary, or at the very least the infamous, and equally at times unwelcome, “third wheel” to the binary.    With this research I would like to follow two intertwined threads; a short and questionable diachronic journey of agender; secondly to posit what an “I” and a “we” without and beyond gender might constitute, succinctly to explore how agender/ non-binary identities are formed. Our thought system allows for feminine males and masculine females, or a patchwork of gender traits blended in what is recognized as non-conforming or gender queer, yet I am curious if agendered experiences offer merely another blend or an entire alternative.   In my quest to draw a cartography of agender, I am motivated by the concept of eidetic reduction, this being the Husserlian approach that argues that we can determine the limitations of a phenomena through exploration of lived experiences of that phenomena. For this research, it means gathering experiences from self-identified agender individuals online to determine the essences of this experience. Namely eidetic reduction is when one moves from lived experience, to a more abstract essence, through to a kind of collective categorization of a concept. This is achieved through identifying experiences that are unique to the group in question. In this I am excited to see how exploring agendered experiences can create gender magic, and consequently a possibility to re-imagine who you or I might be.   Succinctly an online ethnographic study of agender discussions will be used to ascertain if there is something unique about the agender experience, how it might differentiate from a trans* experience or a gendered experience.  [1] Scott, J.W. (1986) Gender: A Useful category of Historical Analysis. The American Historical Review, Vol 91, No. 5, pp.[2] Scott, J.W. (1986) Gender: A Useful category of Historical Analysis. The American Historical Review, Vol 91, No. 5, pp.1056[3] Scott, J.W. (1986) Gender: A Useful category of Historical Analysis. The American Historical Review, Vol 91, No. 5, pp.1057[4] In the western world the advent of this field is associated with an article written by Sandy Stone published in 1987 entitled, “The Empire strikes back: A posttranssexual manifesto” (first presented at a UCSC conference entitled "Other Voices, Other Worlds: Questioning Gender and Ethnicity"). [5] Braidotti, R (2003) Becoming Woman: or sexual difference revisited. Theory, Culture and Society, Vol.20, Issue 3, pp. 43-64[6] Braidotti, R (2003) Becoming Woman: or sexual difference revisited. Theory, Culture and Society, Vol.20, Issue 3, pp. 43-64

This essay looks at subjectivity in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves employing a psychoanalytic approach and using the theories of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Woolf’s relation to the theories of her contemporary Sigmund Freud was unclear. Psychoanalytic scholarship on Woolf’s writings, nevertheless, established itself in 1980’s as a dominant scholarly topic and has been growing since. However, the rigidity and medicalizing discourse of psychoanalysis make it poorly compatible with Woolf’s feminist, anti-individualist writing. This essay is a reading of The Waves, in which psychoanalytic theory is infused with a Deleuzo-Guattarian approach. The theories of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, and especially his concept of the Other, together with Rosi Braidotti’s concept of nomadic subjectivity, are used as relevant tools for thinking about subjectivity in the context of The Waves. The resultant reading is a criticism of psychoanalysis. In this reading, two characters are looked at in detail: Percival and Bernard. Percival emerges as the Lacanian Other, who, situated at the central nexus of power, symbolises the tyrannies of individuality and masculinity. Simultaneously, Percival is detached from the metaphysical world of the novel. His death marks a shift from oppressive individuality towards nomadic subjectivity. For Bernard, nomadic subjectivity is a flight from the dead and stagnating centre towards periphery, where new ethics can be negotiated. The essay concludes with the implications of such reading: the affirmation of nomadic subjectivity makes the Deleuzo-Guattarian approach more relevant in the context of Woolf, whereas psychoanalytic striving towards structure, dualism, and focus on pathology are rejected as incompatible with her texts.

La presente tesis doctoral "Deconstrucción literaria de los trastornos de la alimentación y de la cirugía estética en las novelas de Margaret Atwood y Fay Weldon" intenta hallar una respuesta a la acusada diferencia de género que presentan los trastornos de la alimentación: anorexia, bulimia y sobreingesta compulsiva. La mera explicación por parte del discurso médico y socio-cultural de que estas patologías son el resultado de la interiorización por parte de las adolescentes del mensaje mediático de que la delgadez es sinónimo de belleza, no satisfacían el interrogante ante la continua proliferación de mujeres anoréxicas y bulímicas. Este trabajo consta de tres capítulos: el primero introduce y establece la genealogía de los trastornos de la alimentación. La teoría freudiana y lacaniana en que se basa este primer capítulo ejemplifica que la mujer ha sido creada dentro de un sistema falócrata como "la otra". El hecho de que Foucault subraye que a través del lenguaje se construyen los objetos y que se necesitan los binomios para que uno de los elementos adquiera significado, corrobora la construcción patriarcal que necesita convertir a la mujer en pasiva para que el hombre adquiera preponderancia. Las novelas The Edible Woman (1969) y Lady Oracle (1976) de Atwood; The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1983) y The Fat Woman's Joke (1967) de Weldon son analizadas en este primer capítulo desde las perspectivas freudiana y lacaniana con el propósito de ejemplificar cómo el sistema patriarcal es el que convierte a la mujer en un sujeto pasivo carente de poder, y donde la herramienta utilizada para este cometido es el logos falócrata.Tras la presentación en el primer capítulo de la carencia de las mujeres de un discurso propio, se analiza la novela The Edible Woman, desde una perspectiva postestructural feminista. El corpus teórico de este segundo capítulo es la deconstrucción que Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva y Hélène Cixous hacen de las teorías freudianas y lacanianas. Irigaray pone en tela de juicio la esquematización del orden simbólico hecha por Lacan y otorga a las mujeres la posibilidad de ascender a la parte superior de la pirámide simbólica; lugar desde donde éstas procederán a la construcción de un logos diferente. Cixous enfatiza la necesidad de deconstruir los binomios imperantes y Kristeva señala la necesidad de una unión "empoderante", es decir, de una "sororidad" entre mujeres. Este trabajo ha intentado verter dichas teorías en la novela de Atwood por medio del análisis de sus personajes. Marian, personaje principal, carece de un lenguaje propio y su anorexia se convierte en la respuesta subversiva que expresa su yo auténtico, aparentemente carente de voz y, por tanto, de poder, pero que es, como se demuestra a lo largo de este segundo capítulo, un potente lenguaje de resistencia. A través de la literatura y pese a utilizar necesariamente un discurso falócrata, Atwood es capaz de hacer ver a sus lectoras la falacia del sistema y la necesidad de un logos femenino propio. Es en este punto de la tesis donde se cuestiona el significado de "cultural dope" asociado a las anoréxicas y bulímicas. El objetivo de esta investigación, ofrecer una explicación alternativa a la acusada diferencia de género en los trastornos alimentarios, queda así establecido. El propósito del tercer capítulo es el de utilizar el mismo marco teórico, pero en otro ámbito: el de la cirugía estética. La novela de Weldon The Life and Loves of a She-Devil es el marco idóneo para ejemplificar la teoría explicada en este tercer capítulo puesto que es una sátira feminista de la calología que subraya la opresión femenina y la tiranía patriarcal. Esta novela ofrece una nueva perspectiva de la cirugía estética como lenguaje feminista reivindicativo a la vez que subvierte el discurso falócrata.

This work examines a relational ontology with the focus on our relationships with the more-than-human world. The aim is to investigate a subject that is more suitable to face the challenges of our times. Inspired by the posthumanistic project as presented by Rosi Braidotti I propose a non-anthropocentric reading of Martin Buber’s I and Thou. In the first section of the essay I present an overview of Buber’s understanding of the subject and I also answer the question whether we can consider the I-Thou relationship to include the non-human world. In part two I investigate the characteristics of such a relationship, covering as well the act of dialogue. This opens up for a new understanding of the subject as constituted by relationships including non-human others. As an example of how to protect living I-Thou relationships with non-human others through the I-It logic of law I present the case study of the river Wanganui in New Zealand and its newly acquired status as a subject by law. Finally I conclude by discussing a possible ethic where relational capacities are key.

This essay investigates the feminist philosophy of Rosi Braidotti with particular focus on the alternative feminine feminist nomadic subject that she creates. I also introduce Braidotti’s theoretical inspiration from Gilles Deleuze and Luce Irigaray. I argue that Braidotti creates an alternative figuration for feminism through synthesizeing Deleuze’s concept of ”becoming” with Irigaray’s sexual difference-theory. Braidotti highlights the importance of understanding the concept of difference differently. She also argues for the difference between subjectivity and identity, for the materialistic foundation of the subject, for the fundamental asymmetry between the sexes and for the nomadic mode of thinking. Braidottis suggests that the way out of the phallogocentric system, which she means we are encapsulated in, consist in working through the images that patriarchy has produced of women, through mimetic repetitons, in order to create new representations of women. I argue that the feminist philosophy of Braidotti is both humble and subversive which makes it an interesting and useful alternative for everyone who is interested in alternative, complex and thrilling ways of theorizing female feminist subjectivity.

Föreliggande uppsats är en analys av Maggie Nelsons Bluets (2009), med fokus på begär. Texten beskriver en kvinna som är förälskad i färgen blått. Den innehåller även minnen från en relation som berättarjaget haft. Syftet med uppsatsen är att visa på textens olika uttryck för begär och tolka dessa för att kunna fördjupa läsningen av texten. Jag kommer att undersöka vilka begär som gestaltas och vilka funktioner dessa har, samt på vilka sätt som begären i Bluets ger möjlighet till en feministisk förståelse av begärsbegreppet. Begärsteman är vida undersökt i litteraturen. Många gånger har psykoanalytiska teorier använts för analys, inte minst Lacan och konceptualiseringen av begär som en brist. I denna uppsats används dels Lacans teori och dels en vidareutveckling av te orin som gjorts av Deleuze och Guattari, där begär inte beskrivs som konstituerat av en brist, utan som ett flöde. Studien visar att på tre huvudsakliga begärsteman i Bluets: begäret efter det förlorade kärleksobjektet, begäret efter det kroppsliga/sexuella och begäret efter färgen blå. Dessa analyseras utifrån aspekterna det betecknande och det betecknade, dikotomin man-kvinna, det blåa begärets funktion samt romanens form. Studien visar på att det är möjligt att göra en lacansk läsning av boken, som en illustration av sorgen orsakad av det förlorade kärleksobjektet och det blåa som en symbol för denna sorg. Men analysen öppnar också upp för en annan förståelse av begär: begäret som en maskin, som ger upphov till ett mer mångfaldigt kvinnligt subjekt, som står i förbindelse med en rad andra personliga och opersonliga maskiner. Ett begär som genererar kreativitet och produktion utanför subjektets fantasier.