Lourenço Soares

IYOUSHEHEITWETHEY (pronoun ecologies)

Master's Thesis, 2021

Lourenço Soares’ Pronoun Ecologies can be described as a speculative essay that clearly and rigorously reflects western hegemonial and normative (power) structures on the basis of the analysis of the function and use of pronouns in grammar. Thanks to the analysis of the individual pronouns, Soares is able to describe the complex relationship between people and nature or — following newer philosophies such as New Materialism — to reflect the overcoming of the central position of the human subject, i.e. of hegemonial anthropocentrism in philosophy. During this reflection, Soares seems to be strongly influenced by deconstruction — which is understood as critical scrutiny and resolution. Soares methodically explores every pronoun in the series, analyses them systematically and questions them as well as the ontological status of the topic itself in Pronoun Ecologies. By means of this deconstruction, Lourenço Soares manages to outline complex questions and discourses on both the Anthropocene, the relationship between humans and animals as well as humans and multispecies (or non-humans) in a remarkable manner in order to contribute to the analysis of “human, animal nature and cultures”.

text by Marie-France Rafael