Extrospection: Zen and the art of being posthuman in Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being
L. J. Fernandez
Textual Practice September 1, 2021 DOI: 10.1080/0950236x.2021.1971747 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Key points | Argues that critical posthumanism remains an underexplored praxis and proposes that reading Ruth Ozeki's novel A Tale for the Time Being alongside posthumanist theory, through its Zen Buddhist themes, offers productive ways to develop one. The author introduces "extrospection," a practice analogous to introspection that deconstructs subject-object binaries, and contends that the novel reframes ethical and political frameworks away from ontology toward relationality via "time-being." |
Abstract
ABSTRACT The rapid development of the field of Posthumanism is testament to the field’s importance for contemplating the crucial questions of how we might overcome the various shortcomings of humanism. Yet, despite its productive insights and sharp anti-humanist critique there remains the question of translating these into a praxis. I argue that a critical posthumanist praxis remains an underexplored aspect of the field and I explore productive sites of engagement from which post humanism may begin to explicate a suitable praxis. For this, I turn to Ruth Ozeki’s novel, A Tale for the Time Being, a text which is deeply invested in posthumanist problematics, but also juxtaposes this with an extended meditation on Zen Buddhist philosophy. Ozeki’s book thus offers a productive site upon which to stage an encounter between posthumanism and Zen Buddhism. I argue that reading the novel’s Zen themes alongside posthumanist theory offers productive ways of developing a posthumanist praxis. Specifically, I explore what I term as extrospection, an analogous practice to introspection that differs through its deconstruction of subject-object binaries. Additionally, I argue that the novel reframes our ethical and political frameworks away from ontology, and towards modes of relationality through its exploration of the ‘time-being.’
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |