A POSTHUMAN AND POSTNORMAL VISION OF LIFE IN SUFIA HUMAYUN’S UNDER THE CURRENTS

Abstract

The current study probes Sufia Humayun’s short story Under the Currents (2024) from the perspective of posthumanism and postnormalism. The short story is analyzed through the theoretical model of Posthumanism by Rosi Braidotti (2019) and Postnormalism by Ziauddin Sardar (2010). The story projects an image of a dystopian world where man compromises his long-established supremacy to ecological and technological forces. Furthermore, the story depicts postnormal times where chaos, complexity, and contradiction reign supreme. The story shows a village stuck in its past traditions and a confusing modern world of technological advancement and climate change. The characters face the problem of migration and struggle to find a place in a rapidly advancing world. Furthermore, there is a fictional COVID-19 equivalent to the actual COVID pandemic, limiting human agency and life.  In addition, there is a flood of disinformation projecting a vision of a post-truth era in the short story. The humans trapped in ecological and technological space differ widely from the man of the Enlightenment, where man was deemed to be the center of the universe and a superior being compared to other species. The study uses close reading as a tool for the textual analysis of the story. Thus, the study suggests readjustment of human agency with ecological and technological forces in posthuman and postnormal conditions represented in Sufia Humayun’s short story.