Coarticulation: Mutual Transformation in Human and Nonhuman Relations

Representation” and “articulation” are important terms in discussions of multispecies relations. The term “representation” has garnered much critique across a range of disciplines, including political theory, philosophy, legal studies, linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, art history, and literature. In the representation framework, reality is split into two camps, the representer and the represented: the world and words; mute matter and speaking humans; subject and object. The link between the two is constantly in question. Indeed, representation itself is in a state of perpetual difficulty as there are always questions of who is represented, how they are represented, and to what extent the represented can challenge the representer’s account. In recent political ecology and multispecies philosophy, the pitfalls of representation have become even more apparent. How do you represent a nonhuman that can neither speak nor oppose in the traditional sense? Responses to this challenge have been diverse. For example, one strand of thought posits that human representation of nonhumans is the only means of human interaction with nonhumans. From this perspective, scientists function as the “spokespersons” for nonhumans in what is often referred to as “the parliament of things” (Latour, We Have Never Been Modern). This approach to representation [End Page 38] often entails the protection of ecosystems from destruction, such as in cases in which rivers, forests, and mountains are legally represented by humans in courts. 1 Whatever their precise make-up, such arguments essentially rest upon one basic tenet: we cannot do without representation, even with all its insufficiencies and unilaterality. On the other hand, there are attempts to move beyond the framework of representation entirely, with the proposition of other ways of conceptualizing our relationships to nonhumans, aimed at conceiving new, more relevant political practices. One such alternative is the concept of articulation.