Abstract
In this introductory chapter, Ferrara reconstructs the key moments that anticipated and facilitated the development of posthumanist thought in Italian culture, from Giacomo Leopardi in the nineteenth century to the official posthuman turn of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Through this useful historical overview, Ferrara illustrates her notion of posthuman identity as relational and interconnected. In doing so, she provides a methodological overview of the philosophical sources upon which her argument is grounded, from Cavarero to Butler, from Braidotti to Marchesini, from Iovino to Barad, and so on. A detailed summary of the volume’s contents is included at the end of this chapter.
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Notes
- 1.
“vi sono, nell’uomo, molte possibilità inumane. Ma non divide l’umanità in due parti: una delle quali sia tutta umana e l’altra tutta inumana.” My translation.
- 2.
“Noi abbiamo Hitler oggi. E che cos’è? Non è uomo? Abbiamo i tedeschi suoi. Abbiamo i fascisti. E che cos’è tutto questo? Possiamo dire che non è, questo anche, nell’uomo? Che non appartenga all’uomo? Abbiamo Gudrun, la cagna. Che cos’è questa cagna? Abbiamo il cane Kaptän Blut. … Ma che cosa sono? Non dell’uomo? Non appartengono all’uomo?” My translation.
- 3.
See the chapter by Godioli, Jansen and Van den Bergh in this volume.
- 4.
The use of the sexist word “man” in this paper, to denote “human”, merely acknowledges its traditional use in the study of Humanities.
- 5.
This is not to say that Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis by Ugo Foscolo, completed in 1798 may not be considered a novel. However, given its distinctive epistolary form, it did not function as an archetypical model in Italian literature, unlike Manzoni’s work which, however, was published almost three decades later.
- 6.
All translations from Roberto Marchesini’s Italian texts are my own.
- 7.
“assurdi macelli di pittori e scultori” (Marinetti 2009a).
- 8.
According to Ferrando, if Futurism may definitely be considered in the genealogy of posthumanism, along with Dadaism and Surrealism, there are two aspects by which the two philosophical trends diverge; firstly Futurism wished to break with the past while posthumanism “does not disregard the past … in an academic attempt of inclusiveness that opens to other species and hypothetical life forms” (3); secondly, Futurism’s fascination with machines and technology, as well as its celebration of war, does not align with posthumanist concerns towards the environment and all forms of human and nonhuman life.
- 9.
“Sostituire la psicologia dell’uomo … con L’OSSESSIONE LIRICA DELLA MATERIA” (Marinetti 2009c).
- 10.
- 11.
“destabilizzare questa visione unitaria del soggetto e di aprirsi all’alterità interna.” My translation.
- 12.
“Così se il declino dell’umanesimo inaugura il postumano esortando gli umani sessualizzati e razzializzati a emanciparsi dalla relazione dialettica schiavo-padrone, la crisi dell’anthropos spiana la strada all’irruzione delle forze demoniache degli altri naturalizzati. Animali, insetti, piante e ambiente, addirittura pianeta e cosmo nel suo insieme, vengono ora chiamati in gioco.” My translation.
- 13.
My translation.
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Ferrara, E.M. (2020). Introduction: How Italians Became Posthuman. In: Ferrara, E. (eds) Posthumanism in Italian Literature and Film. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39367-0_1
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