Theory, we think, is strong when it applies extensively. Yet emerging phenomena can precipitate new theory. Standing as we may be on the verge of the posthuman, today’s theorists seek to understand the -human in its moment of becoming post-. This class considers how we meet this challenge in text and theory. Were we never fully “human,” as Rosi Braidotti suggests from her reading of Enlightenment thinkers? Have we been posthuman since we lifted the first twig? Are bodies and brains at stake, or boundaries, as Kathleen Hayles suspects? In this course, we will inhabit the perplex of the posthuman as it is posed by texts and met by today’s theories. With this developing perplex standing as a challenge to our course, and any final determinations, I ask you to assist me in determining the readings and direction for the semester. We will read theorists from Braidotti, Harraway and Hayles back through network, phenomenology, deconstruction, ideology, discourse and language theories to Freud and Marx, and behind them Hume and Locke. Where shall we range for our literary investigations? Students signing up for this course please join me on November 9th, 2-2:50 p.m. (in my Hoyt office) to brainstorm possibilities from the Culture novels of Iain M. Banks through Ready Player One or Johnny Depp’s Transcendence to your latest videogame or the crowd-sourced unpredictabilities of social media.