Posthumanism: An Introduction

By Prof. Pramod K. Nayar | University of Hyderabad

Learners enrolled: 1015 | Exam registration: 315

ABOUT THE COURSE:
This course is an introduction to one of the most dominant schools of thought in the Humanities and Social Sciences today, with visible impact on computer sciences, legal studies and other disciplines. It examines the origins, key concepts and the central tenets of the school, while drawing from literary texts and, where necessary, popular genres like cinema and comics. It explores the philosophical consequences of a posthumanist vision, especially in terms of robot-ethics, care and the Anthropocene.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Undergrad and postgrad students

Summary

Course Status :	Completed
Course Type :	Elective
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	8 weeks
Category :	Humanities and Social Sciences English Studies
Credit Points :	2
Level :	Postgraduate
Start Date :	19 Aug 2024
End Date :	11 Oct 2024
Enrollment Ends :	19 Aug 2024
Exam Registration Ends :	30 Aug 2024
Exam Date :	27 Oct 2024 IST

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Contexts

Lesson 1: Contexts 1: Technologies

Lesson 2: Contexts 2: Humanism and its Critiques: Feminism, Critical Race Theory and Postcolonialism [

Lesson 3: Contexts 3: The Environment

Lesson 4: Transhumanism

Lesson 5: Popular Posthumanism

Week 2: Critical Posthumanism: Genealogies

Lesson 1: New Materialism

Lesson 2: Human-Animal Studies

Lesson 3: Consciousness / Cognition Studies and the Posthuman

Lesson 4: Feminist Epistemologies, Ethics & Posthumanism

Lesson 5: Disability Studies

Week 3: Posthuman Bodies

Lesson 1: Posthuman Bodies: Cyborg Bodies I

Lesson 2: Posthuman Bodies: Cyborg Bodies II – Gender and Cyborgs

Lesson 3: Posthuman Biology

Lesson 4: Biotech, Biocapitalism and Posthuman Bodies/Biology

Lesson 5: Biopolitics and Biocapitalism in Contemporary Literature

Week 4: Companion Species & Multispecies

Lesson 1: The Question of the Nonhuman I

Lesson 2: The Question of the Nonhuman II

Lesson 3: Companion Species & Multispecies I

Lesson 4: Companion Species & Multispecies II: Transcorporeal Trauma

Lesson 5: Multispecies in Contemporary Literature

Week 5: Posthuman Art, Aesthetics and Literature

Lesson 1: Posthuman Art

Lesson 2: Posthuman Performance Arts

Lesson 3: Literary Posthumanisms I

Lesson 4: Literary Posthumanisms II: Feminist Speculative Fiction: Octavia E Butler (Sreelakshmy M.)

Lesson 5: Literary Posthumanism III: Group Discussion – Anna Kurian, Saradindu Bhattacharya(University of Hyderabad)

Week 6: Posthuman Subjects: Politics and Ethics

Lesson 1: Posthuman Subjects I

Lesson 2: Posthuman Subjects II

Lesson 3: Posthuman Subjects and Ethics I

Lesson 4: Posthuman Subjects and Ethics II

Lesson 5: Posthuman Vulnerability, Ethics and Contemporary Literature

Week 7: Posthumanism and the Anthropocene

Lesson 1: The Environment and Posthumanism

Lesson 2: The Posthuman, the Anthropocene and the Post-natural in Contemporary Literature I

Lesson 3: Posthumanism, the Anthropocene and the Post-natural in Contemporary Literature II

Lesson 4: Posthumanism and Care

Lesson 5: Posthumanism and the Anthropocene: GroupDiscussion - Sreelakshmy M, Akshata S. Pai, Pramod K Nayar (University of Hyderabad)

Week 8: Alter-bodies and Enhancement

Lesson 1: Human Enhancement (Francesca Ferrando, NYU)

Lesson 2: Moral Enhancement (Asijit Datta, SRM)

Lesson 3: Posthuman Sports

Lesson 4: Moral Enhancement and Contemporary Literature: Octavia Butler’s Hyperempaths(Sreelakshmy M)

Lesson 5: Literary Posthumanism IV: Group Discussion – Anna Kurian, Saradindu Bhattacharya(University of Hyderabad)

Books and references

Mads Rosendhal Thomsen(ed) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Posthumanism. Bloomsbury, 2022.
Stefan Herbrechter et al. (eds) Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
Calum MacKellar and Trevor Stammers (eds) The Ethics of Generating Posthumans: Philosophical and Theological Reflections on Bringing New Persons into Existence Bloomsbury, 2022.
Sonia Baelo-Alluea, and Mo ́nica Calvo-Pascual,(eds) Transhumanism and Posthumanism in Twenty-first Century Narrative: Perspectives on the Non- Human in Literature and Culture. Routledge,2021.
Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova (eds).Posthuman Glossary. Bloomsbury, 2018.
Rosi Braidotti. The Posthuman. Polity, 2013.
Pramod K. Nayar, Posthumanism. Polity, 2012.
Michael Hauskeller et al (eds) Palgrave Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television. Palgrave-Macmillan, 2015.

Instructor bio

Prof. Pramod K. Nayar

University of Hyderabad

Professor Pramod K Nayar, FEA, FRHistS, teaches at the Department of English, the University of Hyderabad, India, where he also holds the UNESCO Chair in Vulnerability Studies. His newest books include Vulnerable Earth: The Literature of Climate Crisis (Cambridge 2024), Nuclear Cultures (Routledge 2023), Alzheimer's Disease Memoirs (Springer 2021), The Human Rights Graphic Novel (Routledge 2021), Ecoprecarity (Routledge 2019), Bhopal’s Ecological Gothic (2017), The Extreme in Contemporary Culture (Lexington 2017), among others. His book, Posthumanism (Polity 2013) is now one of the most cited texts in studies/discussions of the school.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.
The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).
Date and Time of Exams: 27 October 2024 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.
Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.
The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.
Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 6 assignments out of the total 8 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Madras .It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team

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