The Posthuman Condition in 21st Century Literature and Culture

Interdisciplinary Insights
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-3-031-83700-5
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 282 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 496 g

More than a decade after its first definitions, critical posthumanism has become consolidated as a key discourse for the understanding of our contemporary state of being within what has been called the paradigm of posthumanity, but also, crucially, as an ideology and a praxis that guides our engagements with the world around us. This double dimension characterizes the contributions to this volume. They resort to critical posthumanism in its most recent developments as a set of tools for critical and cultural analysis of our posthuman times, as posthuman(ist) concerns manifest in our cultural products. This volume studies the most recent evolutions in the field of critical posthumanism as represented in key novels and other (screened) popular cultural products produced in the first and second decades of the twenty-first century. Resorting to the analytical tools provided by critical posthumanist theory in cross-disciplinary dialogue with other fields—such as transhumanism, feminist, gender and queer theory, vulnerability studies, new materialism, critical animal studies and environmental theory—the scholars whose work this volume showcases bear witness to how literature and popular culture have been influenced and impressed by posthumanism. 

Chapters 1, 5, 7,8 and 12 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via Springerlink.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ferrández-Sanmiguel, María

Muñoz-González, Esther

Laguarta-Bueno, Carmen

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Strömungen & Epochen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Recent Cross disciplinary Approaches to the Posthuman An Introduction.- Chapter 2. “We are the Borg Resistance is futile”: Reflections, Numbness, and Transhumanism in the Star Trek Universe.- Chapter 3. Posthuman Cognitive Ecologies and AI Moral Agency in Ann Leckie’s Chapter 4. “A Better Future Is in Your Hands”: Transhumanism and Feminism  in (TV Series 2023)”.- Chapter 5. Indenture Rights for All: Challenging the Human Status Quo in Annalee Newitz’s Chapter 6. “World without end”: A Reading of Sarah Hall’s The Carhullan Army as an Eco-Feminist Postapocalyptic Dystopia.- Chapter 7. Outfacing the ‘In’ Face: The Posthuman Wound and the Defacing of Relationality in Joma West’s Chapter 8. Beyond the Human/NonHuman Binary: Fluid Borders in A.S. Byatt’s Onto-Tales.- Chapter 9. Reassembling Skins and Bones: Indigeneity and Posthumanism in Linda Hogan’s Chapter 10. Beyond the Anthropocentric Gaze: The Nonhuman Animal as Object/Subject of Vision in Cinema.- Chapter 11. Humanism as Prosthesis: Science Fiction as Ceremon.- Chapter 12. Phenomenalogy and the Neo-Apollonian: New Critical Proposal and Aesthetic Trends for the Posthuman.- Chapter 13. Posthumanism and Grace: Pre-Texts for an Improbable Relation.

Über Autor(innen)

María Ferrández-Sanmiguel, Associate Professor at the University of Zaragoza, Spain, specializes in North American Literature, focusing on contemporary US fiction and ethics. Her research explores the posthuman and nonhuman elements in speculative fiction. Recent works include articles in , and the monograph (2020).

Esther Muñoz-González, Associate Professor at the University of Zaragoza, Spain, specializes in contemporary US fiction with a posthumanist focus. Her research explores dystopian representations of the future and cli-fiction in Gothic texts. She has published in impactful journals and edited volumes, including a recent monograph titled (2023).

Carmen Laguarta-Bueno, a University of Zaragoza faculty member, specializes in contemporary US fiction, exploring trauma, transhumanism, critical posthumanism, and bioethics. Author of (2022), her recent essays delve into virtual immortality, transhumanism, metafiction, and the ethical aspects of enhancing human happiness through biotechnology.