Making Kin in the Moreaucene

How the History of the Body May Trouble Animal Studies and Posthumanist Speculations about Future Bodies

Abstract

English abstract: This paper problematizes the idea of kinship between humans and other animals. It will deal, above all, with Donna Haraway’s manifold reflections on making kin with other animals and so-called human-animal symbionts, and ask how the history of the body may trouble animal studies and posthumanist speculations about future bodies – by decentering not only humans but other animals as well. Therefore, I will critically discuss her latest book "Staying with the Trouble. Making kin in the Chthulucene" in confrontation with Herbert George Wells’s science fiction "The Island of Doctor Moreau" and the concept of – what I would like to call – the Moreaucene.