Collier- Animacies

Chen takes an interdisciplinary approach to the concept of animacies to re-think some important theoretical debates on biopolitics.  Animacy has a variety of definitions, typically thought of as mobility and liveness.  Chen uses the concept to examine the production and policing of boundaries between “life” and “death,” animate and inanimate.  She explains, “using animacy as a central construct, rather than, say, ‘life’ or ‘liveliness’ […] helps us theorize current anxieties around the production of humanness in contemporary times, particularly with regard to humanity’s partners in definitional crime: animality (as its analogue or limit), nationality, race, security, environment, and sexuality”(3).  Chen tackles a lot with this book and speaks to many different disciplinary conversations.  While I found the book challenging at times, I think the interventions are important for rethinking binaries and assumptions about difference that have gone unacknowledged in much research, for example, divisions between human and nonhuman. 

            Chen’s work importantly contributes to debates about transnational panics and racialization, animacy of environmental threats, the linguistic shifts of “queer,” and interactive notions of affect.  She describes her methodology as “feral,” engaging with the borders of many different disciplines and engaging with queer of color, feminist, disability, and linguistic critiques.  Her examination of animacy necessitates a shifting archive, as she explains, “I follow connectivities that animate before me, without a fore-given attachment to a ‘proper’ or ‘consistent’ object”(17).  She traces animacy in these various sites, along with its changing meanings, animate hierarchies, and how it relates to the production of socio-political environments.

            I’m not sure how Chen’s work is directly relevant to my project, but I think her choice of tracing animacy as an object is very interesting and productive.  It is useful to think through various ways of tracing concepts related to our study and not necessarily situating research in one specific site or discipline.  She also takes a very intersectional approach as she examines the ways racialization, sexuality, and disability all intersect in her study on animacy, and she draws many productive connections through this. I found her linguistic tracing of “queer” particularly interesting as she describes the animation of the category, community, and politicized group, and her linguistic approach is a method that I’m not very familiar with.  Additionally, I think her discussion of animacy hierarchies opens up new ways of thinking about dehumanization, privilege, and the processes through which some subjects are dehumanized or attempt to challenge this process. 

I would be interested in discussing the strengths of Chen’s “feral” methodology, as well as potential challenges to implementation.