Posthuman Childhood and the Pedagogy of Becoming in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Catwings Series

Year 2026, Issue: 10 , 1 - 18 , 22.04.2026

Başak Ağın , Serra Süeda Öztürk

https://doi.org/10.64957/nesir.1930561

https://izlik.org/JA22EL62HL

Abstract

This article rethinks childhood in children’s literature through a posthuman lens by examining Ursula K. Le Guin’s Catwings series as a pedagogy of becoming rather than a narrative of developmental completion. Challenging liberal humanist models that frame childhood as a preparatory, “not-yet” stage oriented toward rational adulthood, the article argues that the Catwings tetralogy resists didacticism, anthropocentrism, and linear maturation. Drawing on posthuman theory, particularly relational ontology, processual-emergent subjectivity, and becoming-with, the analysis shows how Le Guin’s winged cats enact subjectivity through embodied movement, interspecies care, vulnerability, and environmental entanglement. Rather than functioning as allegories for human moral instruction, the nonhuman protagonists participate in multispecies worlds where ethics emerge situationally and knowledge arises through encounters. By foregrounding relational ethics over mastery and openness over moral closure, the Catwings series reconfigures childhood as a site of posthuman becoming, offering a model of posthuman education without top-down instruction. The series thus demonstrates how children’s literature can cultivate posthuman sensibilities prior to the consolidation of anthropocentric habits of thought.

Keywords

Posthuman childhood , becoming-with , children’s literature , multispecies ethics , relational subjectivity

Thanks

In this study, artificial intelligence-supported tools were used to a limited extent within the acceptable boundaries defined in Nesir: Journal of Literary Studies’ Artificial Intelligence Use Policy; all content has been reviewed and approved in its final form by the authors.

Ursula K. Le Guin’in Kanatlı Kediler Serisinde Posthüman Çocukluk ve Oluş Pedagojisi

https://izlik.org/JA22EL62HL

Abstract

Bu makale, Ursula K. Le Guin’in Kanatlı Kediler serisini gelişimsel bir tamamlanma anlatısından ziyade bir oluş pedagojisi olarak ele alarak çocuk edebiyatında çocukluğu posthüman bir mercekten yeniden düşünmektedir. Çocukluğu rasyonel yetişkinliğe hazırlayıcı, “henüz-olmamış” bir evre olarak konumlandıran liberal hümanist modelleri sorgulayan makale, Kanatlı Kediler dörtlemesinin didaktizme, insan-merkezciliğe ve doğrusal olgunlaşma anlayışına direndiğini ileri sürer. İlişkisel ontoloji, süreçsel-beliren öznellik ve birlikte-oluş kavramları başta olmak üzere posthüman kuramdan yararlanan çözümleme, Le Guin’in kanatlı kedilerinin öznelliği bedensel hareket, türlerarası bakım, kırılganlık ve çevresel dolanıklık aracılığıyla nasıl edimselleştirdiğini gösterir. İnsan-olmayan kahramanlar, insan merkezli ahlaki derslerin alegorisi olarak işlev görmek yerine, etiğin durumsal olarak ortaya çıktığı ve bilginin karşılaşmalar yoluyla üretildiği çoktürlü dünyalara katılır. Hâkimiyet yerine ilişkisel etiği, ahlaki kapanış yerine açıklığı öne çıkaran Kanatlı Kediler serisi, çocukluğu posthüman bir oluş alanı olarak yeniden yapılandırır ve tepeden inme talimatlara dayanmayan bir posthüman eğitim modelini mümkün kılar. Bu yönüyle seri, çocuk edebiyatının antroposantrik düşünme alışkanlıkları pekişmeden önce posthüman duyarlılıkları nasıl besleyebileceğini göstermektedir.

Keywords

Posthüman çocukluk , birlikte-oluş , çocuk edebiyatı , çoktürlü etik , ilişkisel öznellik

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