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Volume 2, Issue 1 (Open Issue)
Jan-Jun 2026
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Introduction
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Dedication
~ SUKHENDU DAS (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). — pp:I
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Editorial
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Edito's Note
~ SUKHENDU DAS (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:IV-VII)
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Articles
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Embodied Affirmation: Rosi Braidotti's Neo-Materialist Ethics Between Biology and Phenomenology
~ Authored By - CAROLINA SANTINI (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:1-24)
Abstract View Article PDFRosi Braidotti's neo-materialist ethics is grounded in a principle of embodied affirmation that challenges the modern opposition between the human and the non-human, redefining subjectivity as a relational and dynamic process within a vital continuum. Central to this framework is the concept of zoe, understood not as a property of the subject but as an impersonal and immanent force traversing human, animal, and technological forms of life. Ethics thus emerges as a material practice unfolding across bodies, environments, and technologies. Through a genealogical engagement with Foucault, Agamben, Haraway, Varela, and Guattari, this article places Braidotti's thought in dialogue with Lynn Margulis's theory of symbiogenesis and Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of embodiment. It argues that neo-materialist ethics can be situated within a robust empirical-ontological framework, countering interpretations that reduce it to poetic vitalism. The critique advanced by Francesco Paolo Adorno – who warns against the risk of collapsing subjectivity into mere biological life – serves as a critical test of the coherence of posthuman ethics is ontologically supported by both the biology of symbiosis and the phenomenology of flesh; and second, that responsibility and difference must be articulated through practices of care and situated knowledge that recognize the active materiality of the living world. The posthuman thus appears not as a negation of the human, but as an epistemic reconfiguration at the intersection of life sciences, phenomenology, and relational ethics.
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The Anti-Posthuman Order: Colonial Anthropocentrism and the Making of Animal Degradation in India
~ Authored By - DR. NIVEDITA GHOSH (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:25-41)
Abstract View Article PDFThis essay examines how colonial legacies of classification, domesticity, and racial purity continue to shape human–dog relations in postcolonial India. While contemporary legal frameworks such as the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, though biopolitical in nature, seek to institutionalise coexistence through sterilisation and vaccination, they operate alongside widespread social aversion toward dogs, revealing the persistence of colonial hierarchies in multispecies life. Drawing on fieldwork in the National Capital Region between 2023 and 2025, the essay analyses two sites: the Supreme Court’s August 2025 directive to remove all street dogs from Delhi–NCR, and the proliferation of pedigree breeds in an Economically Weaker Section (EWS) housing colony in Delhi. Together, these cases demonstrate how the colonial process of “domestication of affection”, wherein animal love was legitimised only within property-bound relations — rendered free-roaming animals as degraded forms of life. In the postcolonial present, this degradation is reproduced through the valorisation of pedigree dogs as “surplus value” and the simultaneous reduction of street dogs to a “surplus population”. Yet, the continued presence of street dogs destabilise this order, compelling the city to renegotiate coexistence and opening up possibilities for rethinking posthuman citizenship, albeit within the limits of anthropocentric law.
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Entangled Existence: A Posthumanist Perspective on Biopolitics and Human-Animal Subjectivity
~ Authored By - SWAPNAJEET DAS (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:42-72)
Abstract PDFThe paper employs a posthumanist perspective to deconstruct traditional humanist discourses that have legitimized the subjugation of nonhuman animals and deprived them of ethical consideration by denying them subjectivity. These traditional humanist discourses are not only speciesist but also ableist and racist. They have created not only the categories of human and animal, but also human and subhuman. This raises important questions: What does it mean to be an animal? Does it imply being subhuman or something entirely opposed to being human? What does it mean to be subhuman? Does it equate to being an animal or something different? Underscoring these concerns, the paper seeks to provide a posthumanist perspective on biopolitics, which transcends the conventional anthropocentric understanding of the concept. It focuses on the biopolitical condition of animals. However, by doing so, it does not disregard human issues. Instead, it aims to illustrate an entanglement of animal issues with human issues, in order to advance the conception of a post-anthropocentric and posthumanist continuum of entanglement in which humans could be viewed as sharing common traits of vulnerability with nonhuman animals. Furthermore, the paper discusses how biopolitics directed at humans differs from biopolitics directed at animals. The distinction does not create division and difference but highlights a continuum of continuities, as the mechanisms deployed in the biopolitical management of human lives influence and, in turn, are influenced by those deployed in the biopolitical management of animal lives. Ultimately, it offers a nuanced understanding of biopolitics by redefining bio-zoe relations, which encourages humans to reflect on their own biopolitical condition by speculating on the biopolitical conditions of nonhuman animals.
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Programmable Bodies and Prosthetic Memory: A Critical Posthumanist Intervention in Transhumanist Cyborg Cinema
~ Authored By - ARDRA ANN THOMAS & DR. SUJARANI MATHEW (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:73-92)
Abstract View Article PDFThe article explores modern technocinematic representations of cyborg embodiments and programmable memory within transhumanist imageries through critical posthumanist perspectives. Focusing primarily on Bloodshot (2020) along with the constellation of films on corporeal enhanced subjects, such as RoboCop (1987), Upgrade (2018), and Alita: Battle Angel (2019), the article argues that these films configure the posthuman body as infrastructural and memory as a programmable interface subject to regimes of surveillance, capital, and control rather than as sites of emancipatory enhancement. These films express transhumanist fantasies of technological enhancement, optimisation, and power, while simultaneously exposing the ethical, ontological, and political contradictions of such fantasies. Reading through Donna Haraway’s cyborg ontology, N. Katherine Hayles’s account of the posthuman as a material–informational assemblage, Rosi Braidotti’s relational posthuman, and Karen Barad’s agential realism, the article discerns transhumanist narratives of domination from posthumanist critiques of control and dependency. Through key interventions from memory studies (prosthetic memory, tertiary retention, mediated temporality), the article demonstrates how cinematic posthuman subjects destabilise liberal humanist models of identity. The article thus invites a critical posthuman ethics attentive to the entangled vulnerabilities of bodies, memories and more-than-human entanglements.
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Between Eulogy and Warning: Techno-Utopian Futures Reimagined in Aaron Bastani's Fully Automated Luxury Communism and Appupen's The Snake and the Lotus
~ Authored By - DIPANWITA GANGULY (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:93-109)
Abstract View Article PDFThe present era of the Anthropocene is characterized by technological evolution with artificial intelligence and automation permeating commonplace existence, making discussion regarding its wider implication imperative. This paper focuses on two speculative works, Aaron Bastani’s Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto (2019), and Appupen’s The Snake and the Lotus (2018). Bastani envisions a post-scarcity, post-work techno-utopia where humans instrumentalize machines to generate abundance and freedom from the bondage of labour. Appupen, conversely, envisages a post-apocalyptic dystopia where an autocratic, totalitarian regime of machines brainwash and exploit an altered and diminutive race of humans, imposing strict class hierarchy and ideological subservience. While Bastani offers a progressive, optimistic outlook grounded in Marxist theory, Appupen issues a stark warning about the unchecked power of artificial intelligence. Through multimodal storytelling and allegory, The Snake and the Lotus critiques the seductive promises of technological advancement by portraying its dehumanizing and oppressive consequences. This paper employs a comparative literary analysis to explore how the two texts engage with themes such as labour, autonomy, ecological degradation, and class hierarchy. The discussion also draws on theoretical perspectives from Martin Heidegger, Louis Althusser, Donna Haraway, N. Katherine Hayles, and Rosi Braidotti to contextualize the philosophical underpinnings of posthumanism, technological control and ideological state apparatuses. It is proposed here that Appupen’s graphic novel critiques and problematizes Bastani’s grand vision of a technological eden.
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Cyborg Companions: Reimagining Animal-AI Relations within Posthuman Ecologies in Wild Robot and Beyond
~ Authored By - SAMEEN HUSAIN (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:110-126)
Abstract View Article PDFIn the last decade, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based technologies have seen significant developments, such as in-situ social integration of robots as links between bio-hybrid systems or the computational decoding of acoustic signals produced by animals such as elephants. Such advancements have demonstrated significant efficacy in transforming animal productivity and management across diverse species, while simultaneously deepening our understanding of collective animal behaviour. Consequently, these AI-integrated developments have catalysed a marked departure from anthropocentric design, leading towards a re-examination of animal welfare through prioritisation of interspecies reciprocity and animal-centric autonomy. The 2024 DreamWorks animated film, Wild Robot, is a prime example of this reconfigured animal agency within a posthuman environment. This paper juxtaposes the film’s narrative with empirical developments in the integrated fields of AI and animal studies. Utilising the film’s demonstration of rich emotional and intellectual exchanges between a superintelligent robot, Roz, and the natural world around her, this article investigates the complex dynamics of nonhuman animal-AI interaction.
This work draws upon the seminal ideas of posthumanist theorists such as Vinciane Despret, who advocates transcending anthropocentric binaries, in addition to Katherine Barad’s concept of intra-action and Donna Haraway’s notion of ‘becoming-with’. By positioning posthumanist theory as the conceptual bridge between the film’s narrative and scientific inquiry, this paper argues that speculative fiction functions as a visionary companion to empirical research. This article demonstrates how the diegetic universe of Wild Robot articulates unique AI-animal ecological possibilities. This work concludes that both animals and AI, which are commonly objectified within human-centric paradigms, hold the potential to evolve into the co-existing companions in a posthuman world.
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"Chance Encounters Are What Keep Us Going": Affective Assemblages in Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore
~ Authored By - RITUPARNA MAJUMDER (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:127-140)
Abstract View Article PDFThis paper examines Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore by employing a triangulated framework of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of assemblage, Critical Posthumanism and Critical Disability Studies. One of the two protagonists of Kafka on the Shore, Nakata, experiences intellectual disability as a result of an accident in his childhood. Ostracized by family, he navigates his life forming multiple liaisons with the human and nonhuman others he encounters by chance. The mutual exchanges of information and shared spaces among the various components of the assemblages transform both the individual parts and the assemblage as a whole. The interactions, in turn, enable much-needed correlative support in sustaining harmonious coexistence. Most importantly, these networks of interdependence and care further create an apt environment for posthuman agency among their parts to evolve and fare better within a world of constant flux. This study explores how the heterogeneous components of the affective assemblages in Murakami’s novel interact with each other, co-function and co-become on a Deleuzian plane of difference, symbiosis and immanence. The paper fills the gap in the existing literature on Murakami by introducing the perspective of Nakata’s dis/ability as an assemblage of distributed agency and analyzing the novel through the lens of the posthuman connection of care. In doing so, it sheds light on Murakami's quiet politics of human evolution through connectedness
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Moving Beyond the Human with Indian Kathās: A Post-Anthropocentric Understanding of the World
~ Authored By - SOUMYA SUR (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:141-151)
Abstract View Article PDFThis research paper examines the nuanced intersections between posthumanist thought and the ancient Indian kathā tradition, foregrounding philosophical, cultural, and literary dimensions that challenge anthropocentric worldviews. Western posthumanism, as a theoretical framework, challenges conventional notions of human exceptionalism, emphasising the entanglement and coexistence of humans with nonhuman entities and technologies. In the context of the Indian Kathā tradition, which encompasses a diverse range of narratives and philosophical discourses, this paper seeks to elucidate the posthumanist themes and concepts, thereby situating posthumanist inquiry within an Indian epistemic context. Drawing from an interdisciplinary approach, this study synthesises perspectives from literature, philosophy, religious studies, and Indian narratology. It navigates through classical texts such as The Pañcatantra, Jātaka Tales and Kathāsaritsagara to analyse instances where non-human entities surpass the importance of the human entities. The research explores how these narratives depict hybrid beings, shape-shifting characters, and interactions between humans, gods, and animals, thereby challenging conventional boundaries of human subjectivity and agency. This paper also evaluates the implications of posthumanist ideals within the Kathā tradition on contemporary discourse. It contemplates the relevance of these narratives in addressing ethical dilemmas posed by the destructive tendencies of human beings. By illuminating the interconnectedness and fluidity inherent in the Kathā tradition, this research aims to contribute to the discourse on posthumanism different from the Western dominant view, enriching the understanding of human-nonhuman relationships and their implications in a globalised world with more empathy and wisdom.
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Connecting the Human and the Arboreal: A Reading of Janice Pariat's Everything the Light Touches as an Ecobildungsroman
~ Authored By - NUMANA IBRAHIM BHAT (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:152-167)
Abstract View Article PDFThe degradation of the ecological values and environment need to take up as much space within our discourses as they are in our lives. The necessity of opening up literary spaces to the externality of the environment provides a novel opportunity to reimagine literature and literary techniques. One such instance is the nascent innovation of the ecobildungsroman, which is the story of the protagonist’s development and evolution as a character in tandem with the rising ecological awareness. In this respect, Janice Pariat’s Everything the Light Touches, is a unique narrative which presents the developmental arcs in the four central characters. All four of the characters are on journeys towards self realisation which becomes possible, only when they also take their more-than-human world into consideration.
The paper, therefore, aims at analysing the connection between the human and the arboreal worlds in Pariat’s novel in the light of Posthumanist approaches and also draws upon the Goethean Methodology to imagine an alternate conceptualisation of interconnectedness of life, particularly human and arboreal. It also attempts to present a reading of the novel as an ecobildungsroman through the ecological entanglement between varied living species
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The Rise of the Xeno-Subject: Decentering the Human and the Problem of Alterity in Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad
~ Authored By - ALOMIA MARY P & TAMILMANI K T (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:168-187)
Abstract View Article PDFThe concept of the Xeno-subject, a decentered, hybrid form of identity that differs from conventional posthuman subjects by foregrounding ethical tension, instability, and relational accountability across human, nonhuman, and technological networks. Unlike standard posthuman frameworks that often emphasize distributed agency or multiplicity in abstract terms, the Xeno-subject highlights vulnerability, moral responsibility, and the negotiation of selfhood in mediated, networked contexts. Through a posthumanist and post-structuralist lens, this research investigates Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010) using qualitative textual analysis, focusing on the novel’s fragmented narrative structure, temporal discontinuities, and metafictional strategies. Emphasizing liminal, relational identities, the study demonstrates how Egan’s characters shaped by memory, technology, social networks, and historical contexts embody hybrid selves whose agency emerges relationally rather than in isolation. By foregrounding the Xeno-subject, the study shows how the novel challenges anthropocentric frameworks, destabilizes conventional selfhood, and reorients ethical engagement toward interdependence, alterity, and the posthuman possibilities of contemporary identity. Unlike conventional posthuman subjects, the Xeno-subject emphasizes ethical tension, instability, and relational accountability, with selfhood continually negotiated across social, technological, and material systems.
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Vernacular Futures: Reconfiguring the Posthuman in Contemporary Assamese Speculative Fiction through Homo Minuscula
~ Authored By - PARMAR YASHIKA BIPINKUMAR & DR. MILIND SOLANKI (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:188-202)
Abstract View Article PDFThe paper investigates posthuman themes in Santanoo Tamuly’s Homo Minuscula (2023), a 20th-century Assamese science fiction anthology. It contextualizes Assamese science fiction in postcolonial Indian speculative literature along with its multilingual and multicultural origins. It uses posthumanist theory to examine complex connections among humans, nonhumans (including clones), and other species as co-evolving beings negotiating technological advancement. Stories like “Homo Minuscula” by Amulya Hazarika and “Livability” by Harekrishna Deka explore dystopia, human augmentation, and repositioning within this posthuman framework. “Rasayan” and “The Returnee” explore the ethical and existential issues posed by medical augmentation of humans via technology. Furthermore, stories such as “The Cave” and “The Inseparable Hearts” also challenge traditional notions of speciesism and the hierarchical categorization of beings. This research investigates several stories like this that advocate Assamese Science Fiction’s (ASF) contributions to posthumanist discourse and stimulate readers to engage with its thought-provoking narratives and observations on humanity’s advancement.
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Beyond the Anthropocene: A Study of Posthumanism and Ecocriticism in Children's and Speculative Fiction
~ Authored By - GURPREET KAUR (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:203-220)
Abstract View Article PDFThe Anthropocene, characterized by unchecked human dominance over nature through technological advancements and industrial expansion, has led to profound ecological disruptions—manifesting in climate change, biodiversity loss, and widespread environmental degradation. Literature has long been a site for interrogating these crises, offering speculative futures and ethical critiques that challenge anthropocentric worldviews. As ecological devastation escalates, posthumanism and ecocriticism emerge as vital theoretical frameworks, dismantling hierarchical constructs that privilege human supremacy and reimagining the interdependent relationships between human and non-human entities. Ecocriticism, as theorized by scholars such as Cheryll Glotfelty, Lawrence Buell, and Greg Garrard, and Posthumanism, as theorized by Cary Wolfe and Rosi Braidotti, and Donna Haraway’s cyborg ontology, will provide a framework for analyzing literature’s role in imagining postAnthropocene futures—where coexistence and reciprocity replace dominance as the foundation for ecological narratives. This study explores how select speculative fiction and children’s picture books subvert anthropocentric perspectives, advocating for ecological consciousness, responsible environmental stewardship, and ethical coexistence. Through texts such as Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavio and Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon and classic children’s books including Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree,” Dr. Seuss’s “The Lorax,” Julia Donaldson’s “The Snail and the Whale,” and Emily Haworth-Booth’s “The Last Tree,” this paper interrogates shifting representations of ecological responsibility, human-animal entanglements, and the transformative potential of technology. This study argues that the continued exploitation of nature will inevitably erode human supremacy, forcing a paradigm shift toward a shared existence in which technology functions not as an instrument of control, but as a mediator for ecological restoration and interspecies cooperation. Through the lens of ecocriticism and posthumanism, literature becomes a powerful tool for reimagining ecological futures, advocating for environmental justice, and fostering a deeper understanding of humanity’s place within the broader web of life.
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Clones As Scapegoats: Slow Violence in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005)
~ Authored By - TABIR AMJAD & QURRATULAEN LIAQAT (Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2026). (pp:221-236)
Abstract View Article PDFMimesis and violence are the integral constituents of human nature. From these human tendencies of imitation and violence emerges mimetic desire, the desire to imitate others and to usurp others’ possessions through violent practices. The contagious and envious nature of mimetic desire creates disastrous consequences, which we, as humans, have witnessed throughout history; this research accounts for these drastic consequences. This paper suggests that scapegoating is an instance of slow violence, imperceptible in nature but embedded in the fabric of society, and traces its attritional effects in the clones of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005). Drawing on insights provided by Mimetic Theory, this study sheds light on how the contagious nature of mimetic desire compels humans to sacrifice clones as part of a scapegoating mechanism. Through close textual analysis of the characters and the narrative structure, this research reveals the intricacies of clones’ lives as scapegoats, which are not demeaning, trivial, or different from those they donate to. The key finding of this study is that mimetic desire drives humans to commit violent acts of sacrificing these post-human subjects as scapegoats. To justify this inhumane action, they deny the clones’ humanity, reducing them to mere vessels and sacrificial resources containing organs. This research contributes to a broader understanding of structural and slow violence, human clones, and scapegoating as a pseudo-coping mechanism for the survival of society.