“I behaved like an animal”: About the Limits of the Human and the Animal Life in Justin Torres’ We the Animals
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The article argues that in the novel We the Animals (2011), written by Justin Torres, animal life unveils the artificial borders that preserve the reign of the human, and disarticulates its “natural” alterity regarding the biopolitical regulations that control and define human life. It seeks to demonstrate how the characters’ family relationships express a range of human emotions close to animality. These emotions compel us to challenge the hegemony of the registers and technologies that have normalized human nature as the epitome of life, and that have reinforced its representation through the white male subject as origin and center of modern thought and society. The analysis focuses on two aspects: the connection of the animal to mestizaje and its association to sexuality. The goal of the analysis is exploring how this political openness towards this post-anthropomorphic and post-human place could perhaps be considered a political alternative to reflect on the bodies and postcolonial, border, mestiza and diasporic subjectivities that inhabit and define what has come to be known as the Caribbean.
Animal life, Biopolitics, Post-human, Alterity, Mestizaje, Queer sexuality, Caribbean diaspora, We the Animals, Justin Torresvida animal, biopolítica, poshumano, alteridad, mestizaje, sexualidad queer, diáspora caribeña, We the Animals, Justin Torresvida animal, biopolítica, pós-humano, alteridade, mestiçagem, sexualidade queer, diáspora caribenha, We the Animals, Justin Torres
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