Sirene: narrazioni immersive e medi(t)azioni idrofemministe

Resumen

Within the horizon of anthropogenic climate change, sea-level rise, and extinction, critical Blue Studies have fathomed the entanglements of the many “bodies of water” (Neimanis, 2017) – human, nonhuman, more than human – cohabiting the ocean. Mermaids, as aquatic humanoids, are subversive critters with the power to mediate between these many posthuman life forms (Alaimo, 2008). While defying genre/gender categorization and impermeable ontological boundaries, their stories give a glimpse of imaginative kin-making and multispecies oceanic futures. In this article, I will concentrate on two case studies that challenge humanocentric perspectives and contemplate “new ways of becoming-world together” (Braidotti 2017: 41): the Feejee Mermaid, a hoax taxidermy and mummified creature exhibited at the Barnum’s American Museum and Lydia Millet’s Mermaids in Paradise (2015).