Posthumanism (eBook)

Pramod K. Nayar (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2018
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-0-7456-8855-8 (ISBN)

Infos

This timely book examines the rise of posthumanism as both a material condition and a developing philosophical-ethical project in the age of cloning, gene engineering, organ transplants and implants.

Nayar first maps the political and philosophical critiques of traditional humanism, revealing its exclusionary and 'speciesist' politics that position the human as a distinctive and dominant life form. He then contextualizes the posthumanist vision which, drawing upon biomedical, engineering and techno-scientific studies, concludes that human consciousness is shaped by its co-evolution with other life forms, and our human form inescapably influenced by tools and technology. Finally the book explores posthumanism's roots in disability studies, animal studies and bioethics to underscore the constructed nature of 'normalcy' in bodies, and the singularity of species and life itself.

As this book powerfully demonstrates, posthumanism marks a radical reassessment of the human as constituted by symbiosis, assimilation, difference and dependence upon and with other species. Mapping the terrain of these far-reaching debates, Posthumanism will be an invaluable companion to students of cultural studies and modern and contemporary literature.

Pramod K. Nayar is a member of the Department of English at the University of Hyderabad, India.

Inhalt

Title page 5
Copyright page 6
Contents 7
Acknowledgements 9
1: Revisiting the Human: Critical Humanisms 11
Terms and Definitions 15
Humanism 15
Transhumanism 16
Critical Posthumanism 18
Critical Humanism and the Origins of Posthumanism 21
Poststructuralist Anti-humanism 22
Feminist Critiques 25
Technoscience Studies 30
Critical Race Studies 35
2: Consciousness, Biology and the Necessity of Alterity 45
Cognition, Consciousness and Autopoiesis 46
Information Flows, Feedback Loops 46
Autopoiesis 47
Biology, Systems and Systems Biology 52
Symbiogenesis 52
Systems Biology 58
Dealing with/in Alterity 60
3: The Body, Reformatted 65
Biomedia, the Body Mathematized and Postvital Life 66
Other/ing Bodies 70
The Body as Congeries, Assemblage and Interface 74
Info-Flows, Distributed Subjectivity, Emergent Conditions 74
Assemblage 79
Posthuman Citizenship 82
4: Absolute Monstrosities: The ‘Question of the Animal’ 87
Monster Theory: Cultures of Otherness 92
Animal Nature, Human Nature 97
The Humanimal 102
Speciesism 106
5: Life Itself: The View from Disability Studies and Bioethics 110
Disability Studies and the Norms of the ‘Human’ 112
Autonomy, Environment and the Body 113
Objectification and Normalization 114
Cyborged Bodies 116
Bioethics and Personhood 119
Personhood 120
Enhancement Bioethics and Moral Posthumanism 130
6: Posthuman Visions: Toward Companion Species 135
Posthuman Biology 137
Symbiogenesis 137
Domestication–Deracination 140
Pedagogy 145
Memory Citizenship as Multispecies Citizenship 147
Posthumanist Biology 150
Empathy, the Ethics of Care and Moral Transhumanism 151
Companion Species 154
Immunity 156
Potentiality 157
Conclusion: Posthumanism as Species Cosmopolitanism 160
Notes 167
Bibliography 174
Index 187

Rezensionen

"Nayar has produced a clear and comprehensive survey and analysis of contemporary posthuman thought. He avoids the excessive reliance on jargon that often mars writing on this topic, and treats the competing views he discusses with an even and incisive hand."
Robert Pepperell, Cardiff School of Art & Design

"Posthumanism is a coming-of-age book for studies of science, technology, and culture. It brings together the most crucial considerations of current debates about the status of the posthuman and, in so doing, beautifully weaves together their political history and current relevance when thinking through this complex terrain."
Andy Miah, University of the West of Scotland

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.3.2018
• Reihe/Serie: PTLC - Polity Themes in 20th and 21st Century Literature
• Reihe/Serie: PTLC - Polity Themes in 20th and 21st Century Literature
• Reihe/Serie: Themes in 20th and 21st Century Literature
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Schulbuch / Wörterbuch ► Wörterbuch / Fremdsprachen
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften
• Schlagworte: Cultural Studies • Kulturwissenschaften • Literary & Cultural Theory • Literary Criticism & History • literary theory, cultural theory, cultural studies, vampire fiction, cyborg studies, transhumanism, cybernetics, animal studies • Literature • Literaturkritik u. -geschichte • Literatur- u. Kulturtheorie • Literaturwissenschaft • Posthumanismus
• ISBN-10: 0-7456-8855-1 / 0745688551
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-8855-8 / 9780745688558