Abstract
In exploring the negotiation of alterity and identity within speculative fiction for my PhD, I conceptualized the notion of affinity by enmeshing New Materialism with concepts from Queer Studies, such as queer belonging and queer futurity. Tracing a shift in the Humanities from anthropocentrism and heteropatriarchy via trans-corporeality and queer belonging to affinity, I not only argue for affinity as a concept of identity and aesthetics in contemporary speculative fiction, but also for an affinitive turn within the Humanities. This affinitive turn thereby acknowledges how various scholars conceptualize world experiences in affinitive modes; that is, ways of relating to the world that emphasize interconnectedness, responsiveness, and solidarity. To delineate this affinitive turn in the Humanities, I elaborate on the etymology of affinity, its relation to established concepts and ideas such as kinship and vibrant matter, and how these established theories are bound together by their inherent affinitive mode; hereby, I do not argue for abandoning these theories, but rather, for viewing them anew, ultimately transcending contemporary theoretical boundaries. In the last part of my paper, I exemplify the application of the aesthetic of affinity in literature by discussing the corpus of my PhD project through short close readings of speculative fiction by N.K. Jemisin, River Solomon, Charlie Jane Anders, and Indra Das. Considering speculative fiction as an affective archive, I propose that studying affinity in speculative fiction provides valuable insights for developing new modes of living that prioritize solidarity over division as affinity becomes an ethics of being-with.
Presenters
Aylin Dilek WalderResearch Assistant, English and American Studies, TU Braunschweig, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
New Materialism, Affinity, Queer Belonging, Trans-Corporeality, Identity, Alterity, Speculative Fiction
