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.
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