Posthuman Capital and Biotechnology in Contemporary Novels (eBook)
IX, 187 Seiten
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-030-26257-0 (ISBN)
This book examines several distinctive literary figurations of posthuman embodiment as they proliferate across a range of internationally acclaimed contemporary novels: clones in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, animal-human hybrids in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, toxic bodies in Indra Sinha's Animal's People, and cyborgs in Jeanette Winterson's The Stone Gods. While these works explore the transformational power of the 'biotech century,' they also foreground the key role human capital theory has played in framing human belonging as an aspirational category that is always and structurally just out of reach, making contemporary subjects never-human-enough. In these novels, the dystopian character of human capital theory is linked to fantasies of apocalyptic release. As such, these novels help expose how two interconnected genres of futurity (the dystopian and the apocalyptic) work in tandem to propel each other forward so that fears of global disaster become alibis for dystopian control, which, in turn, becomes the predicate for intensifying catastrophes. In analyzing these novels, Justin Omar Johnston draws attention to the entanglement of bodies in technological environments, economic networks, and deteriorating ecological settings.
Justin Omar Johnston is Assistant Professor in the English Department at Stony Brook University, USA, where he teaches classes on contemporary and Anglophone novels, Science and Literature, and biopolitics. He is an organizing member of the New Environmentalisms seminar and the Wicked Problems podcast series. His work has appeared in Twentieth-Century Literature, Diesis, and Masculinities.
Acknowledgements 6
Contents 8
List of Figures 10
Chapter 1: Introduction: The Biotech Century, Human Capital, and Genre 11
From the “Biotech Century” to “Biology Is Technology” 14
Be More Human and Human Capital Theory 25
Genres of Futurity 32
Bibliography 38
Chapter 2: Clones: Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go 41
The Disciplinary Fence 45
Species of Discipline 50
The Open Fence 54
The Service Station 56
Affect and Climate Change in “England, Late 1990s” 58
The Litter-ary Fence 61
Becoming Posthuman Again 69
Bibliography 73
Chapter 3: Animal-Human Hybrids: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake 76
The Tree of Life: Species, Evolution, and Patents 77
ChickieNobs: Repugnance and Neoliberal Families 83
Corporate Domesticity: Animals in Heat 92
Corporate Domesticity: Reproduction, Maternity, and Escape 96
Corporate Domesticity: Videos, Bodies, and the Domestic Treehouse 97
Oryx and Genre 102
Bibliography 109
Chapter 4: Toxic Bodies: Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People 111
Neoliberalism, Environmental Technologies, and Human Capital 116
In the Shadow of Human Rights 122
Tragic Accidents and Human Extras 124
The Human Element 128
Ambivalence: Humanism and “Something Different” 132
Bibliography 138
Chapter 5: Cyborgs: Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods 140
The Stone Gods: Planet Orbus and Planet Blue 145
Unlimited Finitude and Cyborg Feminism 148
Unexceptional Exceptions and Easter Island 156
The Biopolitics of Evolutionary Time 160
Bibliography 166
Chapter 6: Coda: Genres of Futurity 168
Genre and Bewilderment 172
Bibliography 180
Index 181
Erscheint lt. Verlag | 1.10.2019 |
---|---|
Reihe/Serie | Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine |
Zusatzinfo | IX, 187 p. 6 illus. |
Sprache | englisch |
Themenwelt | Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen |
Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft | |
Schlagworte | Animal Studies • Biopolitics • Dystopian literature • Human Capital • Kazuo Ishiguro • literature and the environment • Margaret Atwood • Neoliberalism • post-apocalyptic novels • posthumanism • Transhumanism |
ISBN-10 | 3-030-26257-X / 303026257X |
ISBN-13 | 978-3-030-26257-0 / 9783030262570 |
Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
![PDF](/img/icon_pdf_big.jpg)
Größe: 2,5 MB
DRM: Digitales Wasserzeichen
Dieses eBook enthält ein digitales Wasserzeichen und ist damit für Sie personalisiert. Bei einer missbräuchlichen Weitergabe des eBooks an Dritte ist eine Rückverfolgung an die Quelle möglich.
Dateiformat: PDF (Portable Document Format)
Mit einem festen Seitenlayout eignet sich die PDF besonders für Fachbücher mit Spalten, Tabellen und Abbildungen. Eine PDF kann auf fast allen Geräten angezeigt werden, ist aber für kleine Displays (Smartphone, eReader) nur eingeschränkt geeignet.
Systemvoraussetzungen:
PC/Mac: Mit einem PC oder Mac können Sie dieses eBook lesen. Sie benötigen dafür einen PDF-Viewer - z.B. den Adobe Reader oder Adobe Digital Editions.
eReader: Dieses eBook kann mit (fast) allen eBook-Readern gelesen werden. Mit dem amazon-Kindle ist es aber nicht kompatibel.
Smartphone/Tablet: Egal ob Apple oder Android, dieses eBook können Sie lesen. Sie benötigen dafür einen PDF-Viewer - z.B. die kostenlose Adobe Digital Editions-App.
Zusätzliches Feature: Online Lesen
Dieses eBook können Sie zusätzlich zum Download auch online im Webbrowser lesen.
Buying eBooks from abroad
For tax law reasons we can sell eBooks just within Germany and Switzerland. Regrettably we cannot fulfill eBook-orders from other countries.
aus dem Bereich