Xenotransplantation and borders: two Indian narratives

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Posthuman Studies
• Literary Criticism

Background:

• Organ transplantation raises complex ethical and geopolitical questions.
• Indian literature and film offer unique perspectives on biopolitical issues.
• The concept of the 'stranger' in relation to the body is central to transplant narratives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine how Indian texts address corporeal, geopolitical, and ethical borders in organ transplantation.
• To analyze the biopolitical quandaries and moral economies of transplantation depicted in these works.
• To explore the posthuman imaginary and its implications for the sense of self in transplant patients.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of Anand Gandhi's film *The Ship of Theseus* (2012) and Manjula Padmanabhan's play *Harvest* (1998).
• Focus on the experiences of organ recipients and donors as 'carriers' of diseased and alien organs.
• Application of posthumanist theory to understand the altered sense of self in the 'body-in-transplant'.

Main Results:

• The analyzed texts foreground biopolitical issues within transplantation narratives.
• They employ a posthuman imaginary to depict the human as a fragmented, co-evolving self.
• Corporeal border invasions in transplantation reflect and challenge social border permeability.

Conclusions:

• Organ transplantation narratives, through a posthuman lens, highlight the relationality and plural self of patients.
• These texts contribute to understanding the vulnerable post-transplant patient by addressing altered selfhood.
• The study underscores the interconnectedness of the body, environment, and identity in a medicalized world.