„Wir sind nie Individuen gewesen“: Zur Verflechtung von Symbiose, Spezies und ‚Race‘ in Donna Haraways Fortsetzungsgeschichten
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Abstract
“We have never been individuals”: On the interweaving of symbiosis, species and “race” in Donna Haraway’s ongoing multispecies stories
Starting from a critique of the metanarrative of the Anthropocene as a gendered heroic tale, this article aims at a critical analysis of Donna Haraway’s “ongoing multispecies stories”. As a speculative way of thinking and narrative style that interweaves science, science fiction and feminist theory, her ongoing multispecies stories deal with responsible ways of inhabiting the world and the subjectivities that persist despite the general violent environment. Through a critical examination of The Camille Stories, this article first argues that Haraway’s concepts of “sympoiesis” and “becoming with” not only create space for understanding interspecies interdependence against the backdrop of current socio-ecological devastation but also break with a racialized notion of the subject. Second, the article shows, from an anti-racist feminist perspective, that Haraway’s recourse to Lynn Margulis’s notion of symbiosis also runs the risk of adopting the racist imagination of a forbidden “miscegenation” of cells, thereby continuing the metonymic intertwining of „race“ and species.
Keywords: Anthropocene, Donna Haraway, individualism, “race”, speculative fabulation, symbiosis
Bibliographie: Barla, Josef: „Wir sind nie Individuen gewesen“: Zur Verflechtung von Symbiose, Spezies und ‚Race‘ in Donna Haraways Fortsetzungsgeschichten, GENDER – Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 2-2025, S. 86-100.
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