Critical Posthumanism, The Chrysalids, and Educational Change

ABSTRACT This paper comprises a re-reading of the 1955 novel by John Wyndham, The Chrysalids, in conversation with philosopher Rosi Braidotti’s formation of critical posthumanism. The author argues that such re-readings of curricular fixtures within secondary English classrooms constitutes a necessary pragmatic intervention in a school system often reluctant to re-examine its canonical texts. The author highlights the way The Chrysalids illustrates the transition from theocracy to liberal humanism but also invites the possibility of a posthumanism through its ending. Finally, the author considers the democratic and emancipatory foundations of education and their de facto humanist projects in conversation with posthumanist theory. The author concludes by suggesting that changes in texts, ways of reading, and the foundations of education are urgent amid the current socio-environmental moment.