Cecilia Åsberg, Martin Hultman and Francis Lee (eds.), Posthumanistiska nyckeltexter, Studentlitteratur, 2012
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17030
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2038-3460
17030
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Ane Møller Gabrielsen
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Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Cecilia Åsberg, Martin Hultman and Francis Lee (eds.), Post-humanist Key Texts, Studentlitteratur, 2012
Text.Serial.Journal
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/
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Book Reviews
2012-06-16
2023-05-23
2012-06-16
2023-07-10
120-122
TS
Ane Møller Gabrielsen
2012/06/16
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17030
120
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
2038-3460
1
en
122
Cecilia Åsberg, Martin Hultman and Francis Lee (eds.), Post-humanist Key Texts, Studentlitteratur, 2012
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17030/15914
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120 TECNOSCIENZA – 3 (1)




     Post-humanistiska nyckeltexter          introduction to an author and guide
           (Post-humanist Key Texts)         to further reading, followed by a
                                             translated text. The last part of the
        2012, Studentlitteratur, 233 pp.     book is a “Posthumanist dictionary”,
                                             explaining about 40 key terms,
                                             starting with “affect” and ending
            Ane Møller Gabrielsen            with “sociology of translation” (in
      (Norwegian University of Science and   Swedish: översettningssociologi). All
                 Technology)                 the translations and introductions are
                                             done by Åsberg, Hultman or Lee,
    What is posthumanism, and how can        who thus become not only editors,
    we as scholars best meet “the            but also translators and authors.
    posthumanist challenge”? In the          However, to avoid confusing them
    anthology Post-humanistiska nickel–      with the translated authors, I will
    texter, Swedish for Post-humanist        refer to them as “editors” throughout
    key texts, seven texts from the fields   this review.
    of feminist theory and STS are           Post-humanistiska nyckeltexter could
    translated into Swedish. Oriented        be termed as “posthumanism for
    towards “all those interested in a       beginners”, a guidebook for those
    wider ethic discussion, increased        curious about entering this emerging
    democratization and more valid           theoretical and analytical field.
    approaches in research and society”      However, it is not just a collection of
    (p. 26), the editors and translators     texts, but offers concrete guidelines
    Cecilia Åsberg, Martin Hultman and       for posthumanist analyses. Focusing
    Francis Lee want to present a            on the performative function of the
    ”smorgasbord” (the Swedish word          analysis and ”onto-epistemological
    for buffet) of texts (p. 7) in an        ethics”, the editors stress that
    attempt to answer the questions          posthumanist analysis should write
    above.                                   the changes one wants to see in the
    The first three chapters in Post-        world instead of repeating problems
    humanistiska nyckeltexter are intro–     we are already aware of (p. 15). Thus,
    ductory texts where the editors          the posthumanism in this textbook is
    explain their take on posthumanism       not just a tool to think with. But what
    as well as introducing some central      is posthumanism? It is a concept
    topics and discussions. The first        with many different, and also
    chapter, “Reading Skills Beyond the      opposing, connotations, ranging
    Comfort Zones of the Humanities” is      from utopian visions of technologi-
    written by Cecilia Åsberg, while         cally and genetically enhanced
    “Material-semiotics, Translations and    transhumans to dystopian and
    Other Connections” and “Meet the         misanthropic views of humanity. The
    Posthumanist Challenge” are written      posthumanism presented in this
    by the three editors together. Each of   book positions itself within the
    the next seven chapters consist of an    material, or ontological, turn in the
                                                                 BOOK REVIEWS        121




Humanities and social sciences.            which     focuses on        how    the
Challenging humanist anthropocen-          phenomena which constitutes the
trism as well as the views and             world are the effects of intra-action.
analytical range of the humanities,        Then follows Gilles Deleuze and
Åsberg, Hultman and Lee wants to           Félix Guattari’s introduction to "A
take the (Scandinavian) reader             Thousand Plateaux", introducing the
“directly into a dynamic and               concept of rhizome to challenge the
unfinished phase of theory building        traditional    notion      of   binary
and development of concepts which          structures so central to many forms
open up for fundamental questions          of analyses. The following translation
of ontology and epistemology; ethics,      of Rosi Braidotti’s "Becoming
technology and (environmental)             Woman, or Sexual Difference
politics; affect and pedagogics” (p.       Revisited", is the first time Braidotti
26).                                       is translated into Swedish. Åsberg
Åsberg, Hultman and Lee have               writes in her introduction that this
chosen authors who have illustrated        reluctance may have to do with
how posthumanist approaches relates        Braidottis’s sexual difference-ap-
to the prediscursive agency of the         proach, an approach that doesn’t
non-human, or who have formulated          necessarily blend well with the
posthumanist insights formative for        Swedish focus on equality. Following
the field (p. 24).                         Braidotti, Michel Serres and his text
The first text is, not surprisingly, by    of quasi-objects from The Parasite,
Donna Haraway. In the text                 demonstrating how objects and
“Companion Species”, an excerpt            subjects cannot be separated, brings
from When Species Meet, Haraway            us over to the more ANT-oriented
uses her dog Cayenne, Derrida’s cat        part of the collection. Being one of
and the baboons of Ebburu, to              the inspirators for actor-network
demonstrate how actors are the             theory, it seems only reasonable that
products and effects of relations.         the next author is Michael Callon,
This text sets the tone for the entire     represented by excerpts from “Some
collection of texts. Still, in her own     Elements of a Sociology of
text, Haraway refuses to be called a       Translation”. The last key text is an
posthumanist, hence the title of the       excerpt from “Ontological Politics: A
introduction:       “The       reluctant   Word and Some Questions” by Anne
posthumanist”, which again under-          Marie Mol, where she argues that
lines the many inconsistencies in this     different medical practices not only
field. The next chapter, “Karen            deal with different aspects of reality,
Barad: a Posthumanist Quantum              but actually enact different versions
Physicist” introduces Barad’s agential     of it.
realism, followed by excerpts from         The seven texts and excerpts are
Karen Barad’s “Posthumanist Perfor-        translated into Swedish for the first
mativity: Toward an Understanding          time. Translation is also a key term
of How Matter Comes to Matter”,            for this particular take on post-
122 TECNOSCIENZA – 3 (1)




    humanism - the translation of know-         merous points of departure for
    ledge changes the actors involved as        anyone eager to venture into this
    well as the knowledge itself, and in        landscape as well as a range of
    translating these texts, the editors        interesting, and creative answers to
    have also changed them. In her              this challenge.
    introductory chapter, Åsberg descry-
    bes how they have adapted the
    original texts in an effort to create a
    common        posthumanist      ground,                       ***
    “transposing” the texts into a post-
    humanist language to enable commu-
    nication between different disciplines
    and fields (p. 16-17). Through the                     Dawn Goodwin
    introductions and the translations,           Acting in Anaesthesia. Ethno-
    they put these texts into dialogue          graphic Encounters with Patients,
    with each other as well as with the             Practitioners and Medical
    posthumanist field. Still, in selecting,              Technologies
    introducing and translating these             2009, Cambridge University Press,
    texts, they have also been excluding.
    And although the editors assure us                          187 pp.
    that they do not want to create any
    form for canon, the texts they have
    chosen inform us that the effects may                   Ericka Johnson
    be something quite different from the               (University of Linköping)
    intention. The definitions in the
    dictionary at the back also remind us
    as readers that this is a specific          This book is about how anaesthesiol-
    version of posthumanism. Translated         ogy practices are formed, maintained,
    from other languages into Swedish, it       challenged and extended, and how
    creates something new, something            these anaesthesiology practices are
    that might be termed Swedish, or            learned through doing, in an
    Scandinavian posthumanism. Histo-           apprenticeship relationship. It is
    ries, actors, agents, objects, relations,   based on ethnographic research,
    effects, materiality and meaning is         both detailed, real-time observations
    what this posthumanism is all about.        and in-depth interviews, but it also
    The posthumanist challenge posed in         benefits from Goodwin’s past
    this book might be summed up like           experiences as an anaesthetic and
    this: How to make sense of the              recovery nurse. It is obvious that she
    complex realities of humans and             knows her ethnographic field very
    non-humans in ways that includes            well, a knowledge which allows her
    the material, challenges anthropocen-       to provide the reader with very
    trism and are ethically valid? Post-        detailed and helpful descriptions of
    humanistiska nickeltexter offers nu–        otherwise confusing medical proce–
