Tok Thompson is associate professor of anthropology and communications at the University of Southern California. He is a well-known author of a number of scholarly articles, chapters, and books on a variety of folkloric topics.
Posthuman Folklore is the first work of its kind: both an overview
of posthumanism as it applies to folklore studies and an
investigation of "vernacular posthumanisms"--the ways in which
people are increasingly performing the posthuman.--Alexandra
Sanchez "AFS Review"
In Posthuman Folklore, Thompson pushes on questions at the
boundaries that we have long drawn to define humanity, and in doing
so, he creates liminal spaces in which to imagine or to reimagine
animals as persons; humans as animals; and artificial intelligence
as personlike yet untethered to bodies, much less tethered to
geographical locations or temporal periods. The great strength of
this book, and its fresh and innovative contribution to the field,
is its illumination of these liminal zones from which we can
reconsider some of our most fundamental questions.--Anne Benvenuti
"Journal of American Folklore"
There is a lot of value in Posthuman Folklore, both as an overview
of the current state of affairs in animal studies and folklore, as
well as a potential roadmap for future research in those fields. .
. . Better engagement with folkloric traditions and approaches
(particular non-Western traditions) allow for the more flexible
thinking required for this historic moment, and Thompson presents
an entry point to a conversation that will continue beyond the
foreseeable future.--Peter Cullen Bryan "SFRA Review"
Tok Thompson's Posthuman Folklore is a wonderfully provocative
collection of essays that, as a whole, asks us to reposition our
thinking about the underlying assumptions of what it means to be
human and, by extension, the dynamics of folklore.--Timothy R.
Tangherlini, University of California, Los Angeles "Journal of
Folklore Research"
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