Queer Affective Posthumanism:
A case study of Wanda in WandaVision Series
Keywords:
Posthuman, queer, affect, negative affect, WandaVisionAbstract
This article aims to study and explore the concept of posthumanism in connection with the approach of affect theory to delineate the creative trajectory and practice in deploying these approaches. By doing so, Wanda, the main character of “WandaVision”, is employed as the core analysis to illustrate the element of posthuman and affect concepts in practice. In the lens of posthumanism, Wanda is perceived as a witch, positioned in the in-between space of humans and non-humans. This in-between space can be seen as a hybrid space that is culturally and socially queer. The applications of affective posthumanism and queer studies via Wanda’s trauma and desire depict the affective drives used by inanimate subjects to achieve the fantasy of the “good life and good family” influenced by American dream and normativity. Significantly, the affective drives, explicitly and implicitly dominated Wanda, are negative affects that drive her to make her fantasy world-making. The negative affects in this context function to forge the sense of hope and redefines the concept of the family as a space of queer utopia. Simultaneously, by creating a sense of hope and reorienting how a family could be, it also makes a critique of normative ideology by revealing the ideal and fantasy in normative life.
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