BEYOND ANTHROPOCENTRISM: DOGS AS CULTURAL AND ETHICAL SUCCESSORS AND JENKINS AS A POSTHUMAN MORAL CENTRE IN CLIFFORD D. SIMAK’S CITY

Abstract

Clifford D. Simak’s City (1952) offers a distinctive speculative vision of the decline of human civilization and the emergence of alternative forms of intelligence, community, and ethical agency. The article examines the novel through the theoretical perspectives of critical posthumanism, animal studies, and the ethics of artificial intelligence. Particular attention is devoted to the transformation of Dogs from domesticated companions into cultural successors of humanity and to Jenkins, the enduring robot servant of the Webster family, whose role gradually exceeds that of a technological instrument and develops into that of a moral mediator and guardian of collective memory. The analysis argues that Simak destabilizes the anthropocentric hierarchy by transferring cultural continuity from humans to nonhuman animals and ethical responsibility from human subjects to a hybrid network of Dogs, robots, and other forms of intelligence. The canine narrators and scholars who preserve, interpret, and sometimes question the stories of “Man” demonstrate that cultural memory is not an exclusively human possession. At the same time, the Dogs’ pacifism and their rejection of predation challenge conventional assumptions concerning violence, civilization, and evolutionary superiority. Jenkins represents another crucial stage in this decentring process. Although created as a servant, he develops into a figure whose longevity, loyalty, practical wisdom, and capacity for ethical judgement enable him to become a stabilizing presence after humanity disappears. Drawing on the posthumanist theories of Rosi Braidotti, Cary Wolfe, Donna Haraway, and related approaches to human–animal and human–machine relations, the article proposes that City anticipates contemporary debates about nonhuman agency, multispecies ethics, technological responsibility, and the possibility of post-anthropocentric culture. Simak’s future is therefore not simply a story about the extinction of humanity but an experiment in imagining what forms of cultural and moral order might emerge after the human ceases to occupy the centre.