Posthumanism as an Instrument of Legitimization in Romanian Contemporary Poetry
Posthumanism as an Instrument of Legitimization in Romanian Contemporary Poetry

Summary/Abstract: My aim in this article is to examine how posthumanist themes are articulated in post-2000 Romanian poetry. In order to contextualize these poetic explorations, I will first analyze how certain elements of the posthumanist mentality (studied by researchers such as Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway, N. Katherine Hayles, Francesca Ferrando) circulate in mainstream culture, focusing on the rock albums Post Human: Survival Horror (2020) and Post Human: Nex Gen (2024) by British band Bring Me The Horizon. By contrasting the popular representation of posthumanism and its most prominent components (dehumanization, becoming-cyborg, apocalyptic atmosphere, radical change in human subjectivity) with its poetic articulation in the works of Gabi Eftimie, Elena Boldor and Ana Zett, I argue that Romanian contemporary poetry does not simply imitate Western posthumanist discourse, but reconfigures its clichés into meaningful reflections on the technological and socio-political condition of the present.

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