Epidemic as a More-than-Human Performance Cover Image

Epidemia jako performans więcej-niż-ludzki
Epidemic as a More-than-Human Performance

Author(s): Mateusz Chaberski
Subject(s): Geography, Regional studies, Studies of Literature, Health and medicine and law, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: epidemic; science fiction; more-than-human socialities; anthropause; Anthropocene

Summary/Abstract: Taking a cue from the anthropause (Rutz et al., 2020), which accompanied the current pandemic of COVID-19, the article posits a new approach to an epidemic as a more-than-human performance. The performance is an action resulting from an entanglement of human and more-than-human agencies, producing effects across socio-political, economic, and cultural contexts. The approach is an alternative to the dominant epidemic narratives, which view epidemics as phenomena of human public health, neglecting more-than-human agencies in their emergence and prevention. While analyzing chosen (re)presentations of an epidemic in popular culture, the article focuses on three aspects of an epidemic as a more-than-human performance. It scrutinizes the new model of sociality it posits, problematizes hitherto accepted ways of thinking about human and nonhuman bodies, and projects forms of more-than-human cooperation to manage epidemics.

  • Issue Year: 1/2023
  • Issue No: 46
  • Page Range: 43-60
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish