After Human

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

AvThomas Connolly

Häftad, Engelska, 2024

Del 69 i serien Liverpool Science Fiction Texts and Studies

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Beskrivning

Shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards (Non-Fiction) 2022Shortlisted for the Locus Science Fiction Foundation Non-Fiction Award 2022SF 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?

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2024-02-02
Mått:156 x 234 x undefined mm
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Liverpool Science Fiction Texts and Studies
Antal sidor:240
Förlag:Liverpool University Press
ISBN:9781802073645

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Mer om författaren

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

Recensioner i media

"This monograph gives a valuable starting point for considering the developments of human figures in science fiction before posthumanism had been articulated and it contributes productively to current conversations about reading such texts retroactively as engagements with the posthuman and posthumanism."Anna McFarlane, Science Fiction Studies

Innehållsförteckning

Introduction: 'Beyond the common range of men': H.G. Wells, the OncoMouse, and the Human in Anglo-American SF1. Worlds Lost and Gained: Evolution, Primitivism, and the Pre-Human in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World and Jack London's The Iron Heel2. Soma and Skylarks: Technocracy, Agency and the Trans-Human in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and E.E. 'Doc' Smith's Skylark Series3. Homo Gestalt: Atomics, Empire, and the Supra-Human in Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars4. Disaster and Redemption: Utopia, Nature, and the Post-Human in J.G. Ballard's The Crystal World and Ursula K. Le Guin's The DispossessedConclusion: Bio/Techno/Homo: The Future of the Human in SF