University of Melbourne * School of Culture and Communication
Abstract
Donna Haraway's “A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist-Feminism in the 1980s” remains a major reference point for twenty-first century cyber- and techno- feminists. However, its broader political and philosophical relevance has become increasingly obscured. Te emergence of twenty-first century accelerationism, I will argue, calls for renewed engagement with Haraway’s iconic text. Trough bringing accelerationism into contact with cyborg ontology, I aim to show how accelerationism might benefit from further engagement with the history of technofeminist thought. Such engagement, I will argue, not only assists in clarifying what accelerationism is, but also contributes to developing what it might be, through providing productive responses to some of its major criticisms. In reconfiguring the cyborg as an “accelerationist prototype,” I hope to contribute to the ongoing elaboration of accelerationist politics, as well as demonstrate the continuing and perhaps increasing efficacy of technofeminist philosophy in the twenty-first century
