This paper aims at exploring posthuman identity in three cyberpunk novels: Blood Music by Greg Bear (1985); Pat Cadigan's Mindplayers (1987) and Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix (1985). Cyberpunk, as implosive since fiction, switches the focus from the outer dimension of the universe to the inner microcosm of the individual subject. The novels analyzed present characters who, in virtue of psychological and physical enhancements, have moved beyond their biological human state. The traditional dichotomies of materiality and information, mind and body, human and machine are questioned and body boundaries are problematized in the figure of the cyborg. These dichotomic elements are overcome, through different processes and with different outcomes, in all three novels via the devaluation, and, eventually, dissolution of the human body.
Shedding the Mortal Coil: Physicality and Posthuman Identity in Cyberpunk.
Franceschi, Valeria
2013-01-01
Abstract
This paper aims at exploring posthuman identity in three cyberpunk novels: Blood Music by Greg Bear (1985); Pat Cadigan's Mindplayers (1987) and Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix (1985). Cyberpunk, as implosive since fiction, switches the focus from the outer dimension of the universe to the inner microcosm of the individual subject. The novels analyzed present characters who, in virtue of psychological and physical enhancements, have moved beyond their biological human state. The traditional dichotomies of materiality and information, mind and body, human and machine are questioned and body boundaries are problematized in the figure of the cyborg. These dichotomic elements are overcome, through different processes and with different outcomes, in all three novels via the devaluation, and, eventually, dissolution of the human body.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
