The posthuman in the Anthropocene era. Transhumanism, hybridity, and non-human agency in Enki Bilal’s «Coup de sang» trilogy

Abstract

In Enki Bilal’s graphic novel trilogy Coup de sang (2009-2015), the Francophone author depicts the Earth’s decision, after centuries of suffering anthropogenic environmental damage, to transform into a hostile space for humans. This phenomenon, as will be demonstrated, is related to contemporary discourses surrounding non-human agency in the Anthropocene era. In the post-apocalyptic environment in which Animal’z (2009), Julia & Roem (2011), and La Couleur de l'air (2014) take place, characteristic of the imagination of the Anthropocene and the climate fiction genre, the few survivors have adopted a hybrid human-animal mode of existence in their desperate attempt to survive. This raises issues of current relevance within the framework of post-humanist and post-anthropocentric philosophical currents by blurring the existing boundaries between the human and the non-human, while also referring to the possibilities and dangers of transhumanist technology.