Beyond Identity: In Theory

The 20th century was an era in which a number of ideological ‘-isms’ reached peak intensity – liberalism, modernism, Marxism, capitalism, to name a few. Introductory materials about postmodernism and postcolonialism often begin with an explanatory gesture about the nature of ‘post’ theories. By contrast to colonialism, modernism, and liberalism, several others ‘-isms’ – notably Marxism, anarchism, and feminism – began in social action and critique or, at least, in more recent social change movements than those of liberalism and modernism. Human’ is a species and an ontological condition, while its ‘-ism’ is a politics, a cultural environment, and a critical stance. Humanism is largely presumed by contemporary Western ideology and underpins certain other critical stances such as liberalism and feminism. Posthumanism can be understood as both ‘posthuman-ism’ and ‘post-humanism’. Posthumanism aligns strongly with several themes of feminism, in particular, critiques of the model or idealised rational human being and of the nature–culture distinction.