12. Februar 2026 19:00
Jessica Seidel
Synopsis:
Jessica Seidel’s lecture explores how contemporary British fiction challenges the long-standing idea of human exceptionalism – the belief that humans are central, coherent, and fundamentally different from other forms of life – by rethinking relations between humans, nonhuman beings, and the environment. Focusing on Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005) and Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods (2007), the talk examines posthuman figures such as human clones and humanoid robots as sites where boundaries between the human and the animal, the biological and the artificial, and nature and culture are unsettled. Drawing on posthumanist theory, it asks how these narratives expose the ethical, societal, and ecological implications of human-centred worldviews. Key questions include: What does it mean to be human? How is the human defined through processes of differentiation and hierarchisation? What roles do technology, reproduction, and ecological crisis play in destabilising human-nonhuman divides? And how might literature imagine more inclusive, relational, and sustainable forms of coexistence across species and ecologies in our posthuman present?
Biography:
Jessica Seidel is a PhD student at Goethe University Frankfurt whose work focuses on contemporary English literature from a posthumanist perspective. She holds a Master’s degree in Anglophone Literatures, Cultures, and Media as well as Bachelor’s degree in English and American Studies from Goethe University and the University of Southampton. Her Master’s thesis examined how contemporary literature interrogates boundaries between humans and nonhumans, with a particular emphasis on humanoid robots and clones as figures that challenge conventional conceptions of humanity and the implications of transgressing its limits.
Jessica Seidel’s research interests include questions of identity and the human, gender politics as well as animal studies and ecocriticism. Her current doctoral project examines how contemporary Anglophone fiction from the UK, Australia, and South Africa challenges human exceptionalism, exploring themes such as extinction, reproductive refusal, nonhuman subjectivities, and queer identity as strategies to decentre human-centred worldviews.
Please register for the Presseclub and for Teams by February 10 at DBG.Rhein-Main@debrige.de.
Registered Teams-participants will receive login details on February 11.
Melden Sie sich an
Hinweis: Mit der Anmeldung und Teilnahme an diesem Event stimmen Sie der Aufzeichnung Ihres Äußeren und/oder Ihrer Stimme zu, die Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft in Fotos, Videos und begleitenden Tonaufnahmen über beliebige Medien und zu beliebigen Zwecken veröffentlichen kann.
12. Februar 2026 19:00
Jessica Seidel
Veranstaltungsort
Frankfurter Presseclub and virtual via Teams
Ulmenstraße 20
60325 Frankfurt
Synopsis:
Jessica Seidel’s lecture explores how contemporary British fiction challenges the long-standing idea of human exceptionalism – the belief that humans are central, coherent, and fundamentally different from other forms of life – by rethinking relations between humans, nonhuman beings, and the environment. Focusing on Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005) and Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods (2007), the talk examines posthuman figures such as human clones and humanoid robots as sites where boundaries between the human and the animal, the biological and the artificial, and nature and culture are unsettled. Drawing on posthumanist theory, it asks how these narratives expose the ethical, societal, and ecological implications of human-centred worldviews. Key questions include: What does it mean to be human? How is the human defined through processes of differentiation and hierarchisation? What roles do technology, reproduction, and ecological crisis play in destabilising human-nonhuman divides? And how might literature imagine more inclusive, relational, and sustainable forms of coexistence across species and ecologies in our posthuman present?
Biography:
Jessica Seidel is a PhD student at Goethe University Frankfurt whose work focuses on contemporary English literature from a posthumanist perspective. She holds a Master’s degree in Anglophone Literatures, Cultures, and Media as well as Bachelor’s degree in English and American Studies from Goethe University and the University of Southampton. Her Master’s thesis examined how contemporary literature interrogates boundaries between humans and nonhumans, with a particular emphasis on humanoid robots and clones as figures that challenge conventional conceptions of humanity and the implications of transgressing its limits.
Jessica Seidel’s research interests include questions of identity and the human, gender politics as well as animal studies and ecocriticism. Her current doctoral project examines how contemporary Anglophone fiction from the UK, Australia, and South Africa challenges human exceptionalism, exploring themes such as extinction, reproductive refusal, nonhuman subjectivities, and queer identity as strategies to decentre human-centred worldviews.
Please register for the Presseclub and for Teams by February 10 at DBG.Rhein-Main@debrige.de.
Registered Teams-participants will receive login details on February 11.
Melden Sie sich an
Hinweis: Mit der Anmeldung und Teilnahme an diesem Event stimmen Sie der Aufzeichnung Ihres Äußeren und/oder Ihrer Stimme zu, die Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft in Fotos, Videos und begleitenden Tonaufnahmen über beliebige Medien und zu beliebigen Zwecken veröffentlichen kann.