Exploring the Limits of the Human through Science Fiction

Gerald Alva Miller, Jr. is currently an English Instructor at Alamance Community College.

'A timely and multi-faceted work that is so much more than a study of science fiction. What we have here is an innovative synthesis of theories of gender, posthumanism, and postmodernism and works as varied and diverse as Samuel Delany's oeuvre, Japanese anime, and the widely known novels of William Gibson and films of Stanley Kubrick. Miller's entertaining suggestion that certain literary and cinematic works evoke their own critical theories that dialogue with and critique established canons of gender and postmodernist theory focuses our attention on how literary and cinematic works engage with critical theory and socio-political phenomenon in such a way as to open new routes of discussion about culture, society, and politics. Best of all, Miller manages to write about complex theoretical issues with clarity and precision a feature that will only add to his study's appeal. Exploring the Limits of the Human through Science Fiction will be of great use to scholars and teachers of science fiction, dystopian fiction, film studies, critical theory and gender studies, and literary studies, as well as advanced students pursuing work in these fields.' - Robert Martinez, Eastern Illinois University 'Miller explores the unique theoretical work performed by the genre of science fiction as it shapes the meaning of science, and experience generally. The theoretical dimensions of the genre mingle in this study with the utopian impulses that he sees as intrinsic to any effort to define the human. Exploring the Limits of the Human through Science Fiction takes us into the heart of the fantastic to show how the genre turns the far reaches of the human imagination into spaces from which new social configurations and relational possibilities emerge. In his panoramic sweep of the genre, Miller shows how science fiction turns possibility into lived experience.' Priscilla Wald, Professor, Duke University and author of Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative

• Introduction The Genre of the Non-Place: Science Fiction as Critical Theory 1. Variables of the Human: Gender and the Programmable Subject in Samuel R. Delany's Triton 2. The Human as Desiring Machine: Anime Explorations of Disembodiment and Evolution 3. The Eversion of the Virtual: Postmodernity and Control Societies in William Gibson's Science Fictions of the Present 4. The Spectacle of Memory: Realism, Narrative, and Time Travel Cinema Conclusion Beyond the Human: Ontogenesis, Technology, and the Posthuman in Kubrick and Clarke's 2001