Mimetic Posthumanism: Homo Mimeticus 2.0 in Art, Philosophy and Technics

Posted on October 30, 2024 by wp_8686836

It is indeed tempting to affirm that on and about November 2022 (post)human character changed. The revolution in A.I. simulations calls for an update of the ancient realization that humans are imitative animals, or homo mimeticus. But mimetic posthumanism is not limited to A.I.: from simulation to identification, affective contagion to viral mimesis, robotics to hypermimesis, a plurality of posthuman theorists–from Katherine Hayles to Francesca Ferrando, Ivan Callus to Patricia Pisters, among others—argue that it is because of our all-too-human tendency to imitate that we are caught in a mimetic process of becoming posthuman in the first place. Free download HERE

Homo Mimeticus II: Re-Turns to Mimesis

Featured

Posted on September 30, 2024 by wp_8686836

In this second installment of the Homo Mimeticus series (co-edited with Marina Garcia-Granero), international scholars working in philosophy, literary theory, classics, cultural studies, sociology, political theory, and the neurosciences engage creatively with the theory of homo mimeticus to further the transdisciplinary field of mimetic studies. See FREE download & BLOG.

ONLINE BOOK LAUNCH:

)

Homo Mimeticus in Spanish with Tirant lo Blanch

Posted on September 20, 2024 by wp_8686836

Desde la aparición de esa especie original a la que llamamos Homo sapiens, muchas son las cosas que han cambiado. Sin embargo, en plena era digital, los seres humanos siguen siendo criaturas miméticas. Free e-book.

Das Phantom von Ego: Nietzsche, Modernismus, und das Mimetische Unbewusste (2024)

Posted on July 16, 2024 by wp_8686836

German translation with Lit Verlag available Open Access here.

Homo Mimeticus: Eine neue Theorie der Imitation (2024)

Posted on June 16, 2024 by wp_8686836

German translation available Open Access with Lit Verlag here.

The Mimetic Turn, Special issue of MLN

Posted on March 22, 2024 by wp_8686836

In this special issue of Modern Language Notes (Johns Hopkins UP) edited by Nidesh Lawtoo, contributors join literary and philosophical perspectives to further the interdisciplinary field of mimetic studies. After the linguistic and the affective turn, the new materialist and the performative turn, the cognitive and the posthuman turn, the issue argues for a re-turn to the ancient, yet also modern and still contemporary realization that humans are mimetic creatures, or homo mimeticus. Essays on Plato, Nietzsche, Wilde, Benjamin, Adorno, Borges, as well as on contemporary film and fiction, give theoretical and aesthetic substance to this claim. More information and OA articles available HERE.

(Nieuw) Fascisme: Besmetting, gemeenschap, mythe

Posted on January 19, 2024 by wp_8686836

Kunnen we ons immuun maken voor het (nieuwe) fascisme (Noordboek 2024)? Nidesh Lawtoo betwijfelt het. Onze rationaliteit is simpelweg niet opgewassen tegen de besmettelijkheid van de mythe. Of we het nu willen of niet: we praten elkaar na (mimesis). En nieuwe media versterken de fascistische boodschap. Toch is er hoop. We kunnen ons bewust worden van ons mimetische gedrag. Als we onszelf doorzien, wordt het mogelijk om de mythe anders te framen en de angel eruit te trekken. Interviews in Trouw & Mare.

Violence and the Mimetic Unconscious: vol. 2 The Affective Hypothesis

Posted on October 1, 2023 by wp_8686836

Representations of violence have subliminal contagious effects, but what kind of unconscious captures this imperceptible affective dynamic in the digital age? In volume two of a Janus-faced diagnostic on violence and the unconscious, HOM PI Nidesh Lawtoo traces a genealogy of a long-neglected, embodied, relational, and highly mimetic unconscious central to the problematic of (new) media violence. Now OUT with MSU P!

The Patho-Logies of Exclusion: Politics, Media, New Fascism

Posted on June 29, 2023 by wp_8686836

In this chapter based on the Raymond Schwager Lecture Nidesh Lawtoo delivered at the University of Innsbruck in 2019, he revisits his work on (new) fascism from the angle of the patho-logies of exclusions that turn mimesis into pathological scapegoating mechanism directed against minorities and immigrants. Chapter available HERE.

Shared Voices: Lacoue-Nancy’s Mimetic Methexis