by Merle Emrich
Zoe Gilbert’s novel Mischief Acts follows the legendary figure Herne the Hunter—shapeshifter, trickster and leader of the wild hunt - through the centuries as his home, the forest, is increasingly encroached upon by the advancements of modernity. The story is one of enchantment, disenchantment and re-enchantment and as such provides the perfect foundation to explore how we relate to the world(s) around us through the lens of posthumanism and ontopolitics. In this episode of Beyond Human, we discuss how fiction can be part of a creative worlding process.
References
Blaser, Mario (2013) ‘Ontological Conflicts and the Stories of Peoples in Spite of Europe: Toward a Conversation on Political Ontology’, Current Anthropology, 54(5), pp. 547-568.
Braidotti, Rosi (2019) Posthuman Knowledge, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Butler, Judith (2016) Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?, Verso.
Chandler, David & Julian Reid (2018) ‘“Being in Being”: Contesting the Ontopolitics of Indigeniety’, The European Legacy, 23(3), pp. 251-268.
Gilbert, Zoe (2022) Mischief Acts, London: Bloomsbury Circus
Mol, Annemarie (1999) ‘Ontological politics. A word and some questions’, Sociological Review, 47(1), pp. 74-89.
Savransky, Martin (2012) ‘Worlds in the making: social sciences and the ontopolitics of knowledge’, Postcolonial Studies, 15(3), pp. 351-368.
Music Credits
Intro music by sfxvalley.
Deep in the Dell by geoffharvey.
1930s Seedy Street Music (Harmon Trumpet) by ASTROFREQ.
Aethereal by DSTechnician.
Cover picture by Laurin Emrich.
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