How to become-human: a shapeshifter's perspective
Summary
From ancient epic to contemporary TV-series, the shapeshifter has a longstanding tradition of
exploring the boundaries between human, animal and divine. Most intriguing is its persistent
popularity within a society dominated by human-centred philosophy and the separation from
nature and other. Delving into humanist and posthuman theory, I explore the (sub)conscious
definitions of the human condition, its limitations and boundaries, through the literary motif of
the shapeshifter – the ultimate transgressor of the boundaries between human and other – in N.
K. Jemisin’s fantasy fiction series The Inheritance Trilogy. I use an intertextual deep time
approach to situate these shapeshifters within the larger trajectory of their tradition. I argue that
Jemisin deliberately destroys her carefully constructed definitions of human in favour of a
posthuman approach of affirmative becoming that stresses the inclusion of the full bodymind
and an interconnectedness with ‘earth others.’ Jemisin’s shapeshifters, then, stress the need for
a transcendence beyond strict definitions to fully become-human.