Blind Certainty: Problematising Anthropocentric Ontologies in Animal Liberation

by Jana Canavan

Dominant humanist paradigms concerned with oppressive processes can be problematic due to the danger of reiterating ontological hierarchies that, arguably, are central issues at stake. In this paper, the analytic approaches of intersectionality and assemblage are discussed in order to problematise the conglomeration of interconnected and mutually reinforcing types of oppression. The issue of liberation from all oppression is thus explored in regard to the theoretical challenges that arise when approached through a humanist lens. By drawing on examples of commodity racism and imperial advertising as taken up by Anne McClintock, her take on the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality in colonial contexts are enriched by opening up the discussion to include the nonhuman. This departs from paths of knowledges that rely on the human subject as the primary category of making sense of the world. The focus of this paper is thus to scrutinise the complexity of oppressive processes through a critique of humanist frameworks facilitating the reiteration of such processes and to argue for more comprehensive approaches to liberation struggles. Through respecting difference, rather than similarity, and through renegotiating the centrality of human existence, intellectual tasks of liberation struggles can be approached with greater awareness and contribute to the dismantling of oppressive structures.

Keywords: oppression, liberation, posthuman, intersectionality, assemblage


Biography:
Jana Canavan is a graduate student in Social Studies of Gender at Lund University, Sweden. She received a B.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies at Malmö University, Sweden. Her research interests are within the fields of ecofeminism, masculinities, and Critical Animal Studies.

Contact details:
Jana Canavan, daroncanavan@gmail.com