Haraway’s Lost Cyborg and the Possibilities of Transversalism

Abstract

D onna Haraway's entire body of work is permeated by her interest in finding ways of allowing heterogeneous actors to work productively together.This interest weaves its way through the cyborg, the Mod-est_Witness, and now the companion species.Within all these figures lies the desire to develop "vulnerable, on-the-ground work that cobbles together non-harmonious agencies and ways of living that are accountable both to their disparate inherited histories and to their barely possible but absolutely necessary joint futures" (Haraway 2003, 7).Strangely enough, while Haraway's comments on technology have been widely explored, this important work on coalition building has been largely overlooked.Accordingly, this article attempts to map out the contours of a cyborg theory of coalition.I examine Haraway's suggestion that we must relinquish our sense of bounded identity in order to work with threatening and frightening others.However, I also suggest that, while becoming cyborgian has appealing possibilities, it is equally important to understand the pain and fear that inevitably coincide with the attempt to critically evaluate one's own subject position.Discussions of the difficulties of actually reworking our conceptions of subjectivity are limited in Haraway's own work, so as a response to this problem I seek to bring Haraway's theories into conversation with the theoretical aspects of transversal politics as they are expressed by Cynthia Cockburn and Nira Yuval-Davis.This theory of building coalitions for peace outlines some of the practical issues involved in learning how to perform the identity work necessary for interacting openly with others.Transversalism is a particularly apt conversation partner for Haraway since it is a situated practice that seeks to remain specific to the needs of the particular women involved while also offering tools and ideas that can inspire others in their coalition work.As such, it adds a valuable apparatus

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