Love in the Time of Hubots: Imagining Posthuman Care and Intimacy in Emma Braslavsky's "Ich bin dein Mensch: Ein Liebeslied" (2019)
Publication Date
Winter 2023
Faculty Department
Department of World Languages and Cultures
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Emma Braslavsky's "Ich bin dein Mensch: Ein Liebeslied" (2019; I'm your human: A love song) explores tensions between feminist care ethics, posthumanism, and the ideal of the autonomous subject through the depiction of the relationship between Dr. Alma Felser and her "hubot" (humanoid robot) partner, Tom. The novella blurs the human/hubot boundary and challenges the natural/artificial distinction, yet it depicts anthropocentrism and what Eva Illouz has identified as the cooling of intimacy as obstacles to accepting posthuman care and love. I argue that Alma's rejection of her hubot partner stems from the problem that the notions of embodiment, vulnerability, and entanglement central to feminist care ethics and feminist understandings of posthumanism are at odds with the ideal of the autonomous subject. Ultimately, Braslavsky's novella shows that embracing posthuman feminism requires renegotiating individual identity, the meaning of love and care, and relationships with and beyond the human.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Yanacek, Holly. "Love in the Time of Hubots: Imagining Posthuman Care and Intimacy in Emma Braslavsky's "Ich bin dein Mensch: Ein Liebeslied" (2019)." Feminist German Studies 39, no. 2 (2023): 98-124. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/fgs.2023.a917809.
