Stacy Alaimo, "Bodily Natures:Science, Environment, and the Material Sel...

The linguistic turn that dominated humanist academia in the latter half of the twentieth century is now waning, as scholars seek to move beyond its perceived limitations. The conviction that language alone shapes our world is being methodically challenged, and while not entirely dismissed, it is now viewed with suspicion for its inadequacies. The current academic discourse emphasizes the material dimensions of the world, moving away from traditional realist epistemologies, Marxist materialisms, or biological determinism. Instead, there is a focus on rethinking matter itself as possessing agency, intention, and purpose.

This shift is particularly evident in feminist theory, science studies, environmental humanities, and animal studies, where the agency and significance of material forces and their interactions with human and nonhuman entities are at the forefront of inquiry. This emerging material turn is driving significant theoretical transformations, leading to new conceptualizations of matter in a posthuman age. This era is characterized by the diminishing distinctions between the human and the more-than-human world, with a renewed focus on the material interchanges between bodies and environments. While the cultural and communicative aspects of the body are still acknowledged, the primary focus is no longer on viewing the body solely as a socio-culturally constructed object. Instead, the material environment and its implications are gaining prominence in contemporary theory.

The material turn is thus effectively challenging and reshaping contemporary intellectual trends without reverting to anthropocentrism or Cartesian dualism. Leading this charge are female theorists like Karen Barad and Stacy Alaimo. Barad is celebrated as a key figure in the material turn, while Alaimo is recognized for her work on trans-corporeality. Alaimo’s book, "Bodily Natures," is an interdisciplinary study that offers a new critical model to understand the complex interactions between human bodies, nonhuman entities, ecological systems, chemical agents, and other actors.

Alaimo defines trans-corporeality as the movement across bodies, interconnections between various bodily natures, and the material linkages between human corporeality and the more-than-human world. Her argument highlights the necessity of more comprehensive scientific, sociological, and textual knowledge practices to account for the often-invisible material forces that flow between people, places, and economic/political systems. Trans-corporeality is thus proposed as a new theoretical direction, aiming to account for how nature, the environment, and the material world impact human bodies, knowledge, and practices.

Alaimo contends that trans-corporeality reorients the body within the material world, countering late twentieth-century constructivist theories that cultivated disembodied and transcendent subjects. While acknowledging the valuable insights these theories have provided into race, gender, class, and sexuality, she argues that they have often neglected the significance of matter itself. In contrast, trans-corporeality “naturalizes” the body by situating it within a world of biological creatures, ecosystems, and human-made substances. This perspective seeks to integrate the body more fully into its material environment, emphasizing the dynamic interactions and interdependencies that shape our existence.

Among the theorists she engages with are Karen Barad, Ulrich Beck, Bruno Latour, Val Plumwood, Elizabeth Wilson, Nancy Tuana, Teresa de Lauretis, Donna Haraway, David Abram, Elizabeth Grosz, Ladelle McWhorter, Vicky Kirby, Katherine Hayles, Timothy W. Luke, and Andrew Pickering. She also references environmental activists such as Susan G. Koben, Robert N. Proctor, Sandra Steingraber, Breast Cancer Action, and Greenpeace, alongside literary authors like Meridel Le Sueur, Muriel Rukeyser, Ana Castillo, and Simon Ortiz.

Alaimo argues that the material interconnections between the human and the more-than-human world are best understood through the theoretical framework of trans-corporeality, where “corporeal theories, environmental theories, and science studies meet and mingle in productive ways”. She introduces the concept of "material memoirs" by authors such as Audre Lorde, Candida Lawrence, Zillah Eisenstein, Susanne Antonetta, and Sandra Steingraber to exemplify how the material self is entangled within economic, political, cultural, scientific, and substantial networks.

Alaimo’s central theme is the need to move beyond the binary divide between material and discursive analyses of the body toward recognizing the complex "intra-action" between the two. This concept, derived from Barad, refers to the mutual constitution of all objects and agencies within an undivided field of existence. Alaimo employs Barad's notion to bridge the gap between discursive and material practices, proposing an environmental ethics that focuses on the interfaces, interchanges, and transformative material/discursive practices. Her originality lies in theorizing the body—both human and nonhuman—as a trans-corporeal agency that interacts with social, ecological, political, cultural, and material forces, which are often hazardously interconnected.

She uses the example of toxic bodies to illustrate trans-corporeal space, highlighting how harmful substances in water, air, and soil impact the body in profound ways. These toxic bodies exemplify the need for an environmental ethics that addresses the interconnectedness of human corporeality and the more-than-human world, resisting ideological forces of disconnection. Alaimo asserts that "toxic bodies may provoke material, trans-corporeal ethics that turn from the disembodied values and ideals of bounded individuals toward an attention to situated, evolving practices". This shift in focus brings the context for ethics to encompass not only social but also material dimensions, involving the interactions of biological, climatic, economic, and political forces.

Alaimo argues that a trans-corporeal understanding of the world enhances our grasp of environmental justice, health, hazards, and risks, which is the central tenet of Bodily Natures. She states, "Bodily Natures grapples with the ways in which environmental ethics, social theories, popular understandings of science, and conceptions of the human self are profoundly altered by the recognition that 'the environment' is not located somewhere out there, but is always the very substance of ourselves".

The book is divided into six chapters, with the first part addressing environmental justice models and the second part probing environmental health issues. Throughout, Alaimo raises questions about the material dimensions of self, race, class, and gender, as well as toxic environments, biomedical truths, scientific mediation of knowledge, and epidemiological studies. She offers new models of environmental justice and personal knowledge practices to counteract the effects of environmental illness. By linking biology and politics, she constructs powerful instances of trans-corporeality in a risk society where people are confronted daily with toxic substances. For instance, the concept of the “proletarian lung” from Richard Charles Lewontin and Richard Levins symbolizes the corporeal manifestations of class. This concept serves as the starting point for chapter two, which examines works by Meridel Le Sueur and Muriel Rukeyser that emphasize the palpable interrelations between bodies and natures.

Chapter three, “Invisible Matters: The Sciences of Environmental Justice,” connects environmental justice science, literature, and activism with toxic environments and raced bodies. Here, Alaimo analyzes novels by Percival Everett and Ana Castillo, and Simon Ortiz’s poems, alongside various activists, to explore environmental justice struggles. Chapters four and five delve into environmental health issues, particularly focusing on the material memoirs of women writers and the concept of multiple chemical sensitivity as a form of trans-corporeal space.

Chapter four is particularly compelling as it showcases how ordinary individuals undertake epidemiological projects to confront environmental dangers, illustrating how the self is co-extensive with the environment and its vast biological, economic, and industrial systems. Chapter five continues this exploration by discussing multiple chemical sensitivity and its implications for posthuman environmental ethics. The concluding chapter examines the assumptions of genetic engineering through Greg Bear’s Darwin series, arguing that materiality, rather than humans, has the power to transform.