The human who narrates

narratives in digital contexts and the dispute for subjectivities

Abstract

This article analyzes the transformations of the concept of humankind stemming from the crisis of narrative in contemporary digital times. Rooted in psychoanalysis and posthumanist studies, especially the work of Francesca Ferrando, it discusses how the human has ceased to be seen as a fixed essence and has become a changing interface. The research articulates this perspective with critiques of data colonialism brought forward by Sérgio Amadeu, Deivison Faustino, and Walter Lippold, revealing contradictions between the posthuman ideal of inclusion and digital practices that reproduce epistemic and economic asymmetries. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it highlights how algorithmic platforms shape subjectivities, conditioning listening and the right to narrate to global interests. An analysis engages with decolonial authors such as Krenak and Gonzalez, who reaffirm orality as resistance to the coloniality of knowledge. The article concludes that storytelling has become a political gesture of collective care, essential for reimagining the human amid power struggles and digital invisibility. Thus, it proposes that the reconfiguration of narratives be part of an ethical and political project, where listening is as important as speaking, and where the human narrator emerges as a situated, multiple, and constantly negotiating subject.