Review of the Book by Rosi Braidotti “Posthuman”

Abstract

The article offers reflections on Rosi Braidotti’s book “Posthuman”, which was published in 2021 by the Gaidar Institute Publishing House (translator Diana Khamis). Rosi Braidotti is a contemporary philosopher and feminist theorist, originally from Italy, currently teaching at the Utrecht University (Netherlands). Despite her connection with significant international organizations and associations (including UNESCO, Conseil National de la Recherche Scientifique, France, European Consortium for Humanities Institutes and Centres, EEC) and the role that her research plays in contemporary social and humanitarian discourse, her name is not widely known to the Russian-speaking reader in comparison to other authors of feminist trend, such as Judith Butler or Donna Haraway. Rosi Braidotti’s interest is directed towards the reflections on the subjectivity of a contemporary person. Based on critical theory, the project of nomadology, feminist studies, and using her own anti-humanistic optics, she affirms the idea of a posthuman who has a developing identity, overcomes anthropocentric limits in its essence, and is open to assemblies with living matter and the world of technology. In this review, I focus on the main structural elements of the book, its key ideas; I offer my interpretation of some plots of the text; I dwell on the discussion points of the work. I come to the conclusion that the concept of the posthuman and the posthumanistic method allow us to open new horizons for the current research practices of man and society.