Browsing by Author "Österblom, Joanna"

This theoretical study explores the topic of posthumanism and the implications it has for media and communication studies. Posthumanism is a growing and very fluid field, and it is often also called the material turn. Therefore the topic is approached here in many different ways to give as thorough a discussion as possible. Posthumanism is first defined, partly by distinguishing it from other similar lines of thinking, and a short history of posthumanism is provided to be able to contextualize it. It also goes through the most influential theorists in the two fields where posthumanism has been present the most, gender studies as well as science and technology studies. Except for the interest in materialiy, the two main criteria for this posthumanism is a rejection of an anthropocentric point of view as well as a rejection of the nature-culture dichotomy and the thesis moves deeper into the theory by exploring these two key concepts for a posthumanist perspective. Post-anthropocentrism and naturecultures are crucial for understanding the posthumanist theory and research that then is developed in relation to media and communication. An interest in materiality and the non-human also follows as a consequence of these two rejections. In the thesis it is shown both how posthumanism has affected and could affect research on media and communication. By unfocusing questions of representation, to instead focus on the materiality behind media and communication, new interesting aspects of media starts to reveal itself. The media scholars Marshall McLuhan and Friedrich Kittler investigated aspects of materiality. Many of the posthumanist media theories take off from these two, to move on to an even more radical position. This novel media theory is then discussed, mostly in relation to the work of media scholar Jussi Parikka. It is also argued that an understanding of media that is not limited to humans or human artifacts is needed.