The Face of the Hybrid: Alterity and Ontological Disruption in Contemporary Fiction

This paper examines how hybrid forms of otherness are represented in contemporary literature and how they represent hybridized beings which challenge the ontological and ethical frameworks that define and recognize who is considered to be human. Utilizing Emmanuel Levinas' understanding of ethics as an obligation to the Other, this paper uses two case studies, M.R. Carey’s The Girl with all the Gifts and Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad, to demonstrate the responsibility to the Other that develops prior to being evaluated, categorized or regulated by social structures. Levinas describes the moment of encountering the Other as disrupting one’s own ability to categorize, protect or use the Other for one’s own ends; however, Levinas also identifies the relationship between the desire for openness towards the Other and the need to maintain the boundaries of survival, purity and threat as the basis for creating and maintaining collective identities. The goal of this paper is to explore how representations of hybridized bodies in crisis-ridden societies raise questions about the nature of ethical responsibility and the limits of accepting diversity in systems that operate based on fear. Therefore, the paper utilizes a comparative close-reading method that incorporates concepts of Levinasian ethics, posthumanism and hybridity studies. A multidisciplinary approach provides the opportunity to explore how the literary representation of hybridized Others may have the capability to disrupt existing boundaries - between species, between nation-states and between the commonalities of what we consider to be "us" and therefore deserving of care, protection, rights and recognition. Furthermore, through the lens of broader discussions related to alterity, coexistence and the ethics of coexistence, this paper will argue that contemporary representations of hybridity provide opportunities to re-evaluate whether it is possible to engage with the Other in a manner that moves beyond identity, utility or security.