The Hysterical Sublime: Humanism in the Age of Posthuman Capitalism

Developing the concept of the hysterical sublime, first theorised by Fredric Jameson, to challenge posthumanist perspectives on the Anthropocene, this book facilitates the rethinking of universal and dialectical humanism as concepts for grappling with 21st-century capitalism.In recent years, posthumanist theories have been concerned with the overlapping dilemmas of global climate change, digital automation, and artificial intelligence, corresponding to the age of the Anthropocene.Matthew Flisfeder explores how the fear of technology becomes, for Jameson, a substitute for the fears of the capitalist system, and shows that posthumanism displaces such fears onto the figure of the human and anthropocentrism.Drawing on Hegelian-Lacanian theory, the book argues that to rethink dialectical humanism requires moving past the historicist versions of Marxist humanism that imagine a complete reconciliation with non-human nature that includes a process of dis-alienation.Flisfeder also studies posth