2013/09/13 by Ellen E. Berry · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Gothic Literature and Media Analysis #Geographies of human-animal interactions #Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies #Posthuman #Posthumanism #Aesthetics #Humanism #Sociology #Art #Art history #Psychoanalysis #Psychology #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1002/9781118608395.ch32
openalex publication_date 2013/09/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Lynda Barry is a Filipina-American cartoonist, playwright and novelist whose work is distinguished by its hilarious and heart-wrenching portrayals of childhood experiences, rendered through acute depictions of the child's own point of view, voice, and affective landscape. I analyze Barry's 1999 Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel as a vivid example of what I call “gothic posthumanism” in which gothic themes and tropes serve to advance an extensive critique of anthropo- and other centrisms, all forms of domination, the values of liberal humanism and affirmative conformist culture. I draw on Rosi Braidotti's theory of posthuman ethics to analyze Roberta's survival strategies and her radically posthuman identification with animals centering on their shared vulnerability and thus their shared goal: to disappear and to survive.