Posthumanism and Trauma 50 Sonia Baelo-Allue ´ Contents Introduction ..................................................................................... 1120 A Culture of Trauma or a Posthuman Culture? ................................................ 1120 Reconfiguring Subjectivity and Redefining the Human Being ................................ 1123 Hybridity and the Encounter with the Human and Nonhuman Other ......................... 1126 Informational Patters and the Embrace of the Machine ....................................... 1130 The Anthropocene and Eco-Trauma ........................................................... 1134 Conclusion ...................................................................................... 1135 Cross-References ............................................................................... 1136 References ...................................................................................... 1136 Abstract Although trauma studies and critical posthumanism have simultaneously devel- oped, only in the last few years have critics started to see the imbrications of both disciplines. Trauma studies and critical posthumanism acknowledge that the traditional definition of the human as autonomous, exceptional, self-willed, and rational subject, distinct from and dominating other life forms, needs to be revised and reconfigured. Whereas classical trauma theory dwells on the wound and the fragmentation that human subjectivity has endured and is concerned with the process of “acting out” and “working through” that will lead to the reintegration of the self ’ s bounded internal equilibrium, critical posthumanism sees the wound as an opportunity to redefine subjectivity as relational, interdependent, and co-evolving with other bodies, machines, and material forms. In the last few years, classical trauma studies has evolved from a Eurocentric, event-based, static conception of trauma to a more embedded and embodied vision of the trauma process that takes into account the ties of humans to other organic bodies, machines, and material forms. In turn, critical posthumanism has found in trauma S. Baelo-Allué (*) University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain e-mail: baelo@unizar.es © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Herbrechter et al. (eds.), Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04958-3_40 1119