The ‘WHAT OF’ and the ‘WHAT IF’ of Agential Realism – In Search of the Gendered Subject

Abstract

The article explores Karen Barad’s theoretical framework, agential realism, to seek out theoretical perspectives that can be used as analytical approaches to empirical data. By selecting two pieces of data we aim to illustrate the analytical possibilities offered by this approach. The first piece of data stipulates an opening of ‘WHAT OF’ of the activities in a world of computer games: WHAT OF the myriad of real and virtual voices, sentiments and actions and their interconnections and meaning for gendered subjectification? The second piece is guided by ‘WHAT IF’ thinking: WHAT would we be able to see IF we brought insights from quantum physics, i.e. spacetimemattering, to the conception of thinking subjects. The examples show that agential realism offers a theoretical framework that allows access to a much wider set of enacting forces to be considered in the analysis. By reading agential realism diffractively with two different empirical examples and two different research ambitions, our attention is drawn to specificities of what the engagements may enact consequently.