After Human - Thomas Connolly

After Human

A Critical History of the Human in Science Fiction from Shelley to Le Guin

(Autor)

Buch | Softcover
240 Seiten
2024
Liverpool University Press (Verlag)
978-1-80207-364-5 (ISBN)
31,15 inkl. MwSt
Shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards (Non-Fiction) 2022

Shortlisted for the Locus Science Fiction Foundation Non-Fiction Award 2022

SF haslong been understood as a literature of radical potential, capable of imaginingentirely new worlds and ways of being.
Shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards (Non-Fiction) 2022

Shortlisted for the Locus Science Fiction Foundation Non-Fiction Award 2022

SF has
long been understood as a literature of radical potential, capable of imagining
entirely new worlds and ways of being. Yet SF has been slow to embrace
posthumanist ideas about the human subject. The human of the SF tradition is
instead a liminal being, caught somewhere between the transcendent ‘Man’ of
classical humanism and the subversive ‘cyborg’ of posthumanist thought.



This
study offers a critical history of the 'human' in SF. By examining a range
of SF works from 1818 to the 1970s, it seeks to answer some key questions: What
role does technology play in defining what it means to be—or not to be—human?
How do these writers understand the relationship between humanity and the rest
of nature? And how can we use SF to re-examine our ethical position towards the
non-human world and move to more egalitarian understandings of the human
subject?

Thomas Connolly is an independent researcher based in Dublin. His research interests include science fiction, posthumanism, disability in literature, and popular culture.

Introduction: 'Beyond the common range of men': H.G. Wells, the OncoMouse, and the Human in Anglo-American SF
1. Worlds Lost and Gained: Evolution, Primitivism, and the Pre-Human in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World and Jack London's The Iron Heel
2. Soma and Skylarks: Technocracy, Agency and the Trans-Human in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and E.E. 'Doc' Smith's Skylark Series
3. Homo Gestalt: Atomics, Empire, and the Supra-Human in Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars
4. Disaster and Redemption: Utopia, Nature, and the Post-Human in J.G. Ballard's The Crystal World and Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed
Conclusion: Bio/Techno/Homo: The Future of the Human in SF

Erscheinungsdatum
Reihe/Serie Liverpool Science Fiction Texts & Studies ; 69
Verlagsort Liverpool
Sprache englisch
Maße 156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt Geisteswissenschaften Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft Anglistik / Amerikanistik
Geisteswissenschaften Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte
Geisteswissenschaften Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft
ISBN-10 1-80207-364-7 / 1802073647
ISBN-13 978-1-80207-364-5 / 9781802073645
Zustand Neuware
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