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 posthumanism’s “performative
contradiction” of dismissing humanism
while at the same time depending on the
very concepts that constitute the core
of humanist thought: freedom, equality,
responsibility, and autonomy.
Through the concept of the hysterical
sublime, this book argues that, not only
is anthropocentrism and humanism
the unconscious core of posthumanist
theory; emancipatory politics must take
ownership of this perspective and renew
universalist and dialectical humanism as
the core of the political project resistant
to capitalism and the Capitalocene.
By:
Matthew Flisfeder (University of Winnipeg Canada)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781350536104
ISBN 10: 1350536105
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 24 July 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Preface Introduction 1. Renewing Humanism Against the Anthropocene: Towards a Theory of the Hysterical Sublime 2. From Posthumanist Anaesthetics to Promethean Dialectics 3. Variations of the Posthuman Fantasy 4. Defending Representation; or, Thinking the Paradox to Its Limit 5. Develop the Superstructure: Althusser and the Humanist Controversy Reconsidered 6. Freedom and Alienation; or, Humanism of the Non-All Conclusion
MATTHEW FLISFEDER is a Professor of Rhetoric and Communications at The University of Winnipeg, Canada. He is the author of Algorithmic Desire: Toward a New Structuralist Theory of Social Media (2021), Postmodern Theory and Blade Runner (2017), and The Symbolic, The Sublime, and Slavoj Žižek’s Theory of Film (2012). He is also the co-editor of Žižek and Media Studies: A Reader (2014).
Reviews for The Hysterical Sublime: Humanism in the Age of Posthuman Capitalism
Our period is one of crisis. Against the growing hegemony of posthumanism as the ideology of twenty-first century capitalism, Matthew Flisfeder disrupts our received wisdoms about our time by showing how dialectical humanism can better conceptualize our understanding of the present. The Hysterical Sublime is an essential theoretical intervention which everyone must read * Agon Hamza, Co-author of Reading Hegel (2021) * Flisfeder’s book is the rare case of a work which appears at the right moment doing the right thing. The Hysterical Sublime conclusively demonstrates that the ongoing global crisis of the Anthropocene is at its most fundamental not just an economic or social crisis but a properly metaphysical crisis centering on the very core human subjectivity: it is not enough just do what is required from us, we have to rethink the entire frame of our posthuman situation in order to arrive at an adequate cognitive mapping of our predicament in 21st century capitalism. And what better way to do this than to begin with Flisfeder’s magnificent book! * Slavoj Žižek, author of Zero Point (2025), Against Progress (2024) and Christian Atheism (2024), all published by Bloomsbury *