Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism

Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism PDF Author: E. Gomel
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137367636
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism offers a typology of alien encounters and addresses a range of texts including classic novels of alien encounter by H.G. Wells and Robert Heinlein; recent blockbusters by Greg Bear, Octavia Butler and Sheri Tepper; and experimental science fiction by Peter Watts and Housuke Nojiri.

Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism

Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism PDF Author: E. Gomel
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137367636
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism offers a typology of alien encounters and addresses a range of texts including classic novels of alien encounter by H.G. Wells and Robert Heinlein; recent blockbusters by Greg Bear, Octavia Butler and Sheri Tepper; and experimental science fiction by Peter Watts and Housuke Nojiri.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Close Encounters of the Third Kind PDF Author: Jon Towlson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 1911325086
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
For many, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (CE3K) is not so much a movie as a religious experience. On its release in 1977, CE3K virtually redefined the science fiction film, shifting it away from spaceships, laser guns, and bug-eyed monsters into a modified form of science fiction that John Wyndham once called ‘logical fantasy’. What would it be like if extra-terrestrials made contact with people on Earth? How would it feel? Like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Steven Spielberg’s primary inspiration, CE3K is concerned with mankind’s evolution towards the stars, towards a state of transcendence. But Spielberg’s vision hinges not so much on cool scientific intellect being the key to our next stage of evolution, as on the necessary development of emotional intelligence. To that end, we must regain our childlike curiosity for what lies beyond the skies, we must recover our capacity to experience wonder. Intensity of emotion is inherent to the film’s meaning, and the aim of this book is to explore this in detail. Along the way it delves into the film’s production history, explores Spielberg’s remarkable cinematic realisation of the film (including a comparison study of the three different release versions), and considers in detail how CE3K fits into the Spielberg oeuvre.

Science Fiction and the Moral Imagination

Science Fiction and the Moral Imagination PDF Author: Russell Blackford
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319616854
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
In this highly original book, Russell Blackford discusses the intersection of science fiction and humanity’s moral imagination. With the rise of science and technology in the 19th century, and our continually improving understanding of the cosmos, writers and thinkers soon began to imagine futures greatly different from the present. Science fiction was born out of the realization that future technoscientific advances could dramatically change the world. Along with the developments described in modern science fiction - space societies, conscious machines, and upgraded human bodies, to name but a few - come a new set of ethical challenges and new forms of ethics. Blackford identifies these issues and their reflection in science fiction. His fascinating book will appeal to anyone with an interest in philosophy or science fiction, or in how they interact. “This is a seasoned, balanced analysis of a major issue in our thinking about the future, seen through the lens of science fiction, a central art of our time. Everyone from humanists to technologists should study these ideas and examples. Blackford’s book is wise and savvy, and a delight to read as well.” Greg Benford, author of Timescape.

Posthuman Gothic

Posthuman Gothic PDF Author: Anya Heise-von der Lippe
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 1786831082
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Posthuman Gothic is an edited collection of thirteen chapters, and offers a structured, dialogical contribution to the discussion of the posthuman Gothic. Contributors explore the various ways in which posthuman thought intersects with Gothic textuality and mediality. The texts and media under discussion – from I am Legend to In the Flesh, and from Star Trek to The Truman Show, transgress the boundaries of genre, moving beyond the traditional scope of the Gothic. These texts, the contributors argue, destabilise ideas of the human in a number of ways. By confronting humanity and its Others, they introduce new perspectives on what we traditionally perceive as human. Drawing on key texts of both Gothic and posthumanist theory, the contributors explore such varied themes as posthuman vampire and zombie narratives, genetically modified posthumans, the posthuman in video games, film and TV, the posthuman as a return to nature, the posthuman’s relation to classic monster narratives, and posthuman biohorror and theories of prometheanism and accelerationism. In its entirety, the volume offers a first attempt at addressing the various intersections of the posthuman and the Gothic in contemporary literature and media.

The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Posthuman

The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Posthuman PDF Author: Bruce Clarke
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107086205
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
This book gathers diverse critical treatments from fifteen scholars of the posthuman and posthumanism together in a single volume.

Posthumanism and the Graphic Novel in Latin America

Posthumanism and the Graphic Novel in Latin America PDF Author: Edward King
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1911576461
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Latin America is experiencing a boom in graphic novels that are highly innovative in their conceptual play and their reworking of the medium. Inventive artwork and sophisticated scripts have combined to satisfy the demand of a growing readership, both at home and abroad. Posthumanism and the Graphic Novel in Latin America, which is the first book-length study of the topic, argues that the graphic novel is emerging in Latin America as a uniquely powerful force to explore the nature of twenty-first century subjectivity. The authors place particular emphasis on the ways in which humans are bound to their non-human environment, and these ideas are productively drawn out in relation to posthuman thought and experience. The book draws together a range of recent graphic novels from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay, many of which experiment with questions of transmediality, the representation of urban space, modes of perception and cognition, and a new form of ethics for a posthuman world. Praise for Posthumanism and the Graphic Novel in Latin America '...well-referenced and… well considered - the analyses it brings are overall well-executed and insightful...' Image and Narrative, Jan 2018, vol 18, no 4

Science Fiction beyond Borders

Science Fiction beyond Borders PDF Author: Shawn Edrei
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443857599
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
Since the turn of the previous century, science fiction and its native tropes have been used by authors, artists, filmmakers and critics in order to challenge boundaries – whether these be conceptual, literary or metaphorical. Uniquely inherent to the genre is its ability to explore, as a form of thought experiment, different ways of crossing and subverting borders previously thought to be inviolable; these transgressions and their effects on popular culture have in turn led to an increased presence of science fiction studies in academia. This volume features papers presented at the 2014 and 2015 Science Fiction Symposia, held at Tel-Aviv University. These essays, submitted by an eclectic mix of scholars from different disciplines, institutes and walks of life, demonstrate the diversity and adaptability of science fiction as a tool for asking – and answering – impossible questions.

Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture

Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture PDF Author: Sanna Karkulehto
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429516193
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
The time has come for human cultures to seriously think, to severely conceptualize, and to earnestly fabulate about all the nonhuman critters we share our world with, and to consider how to strive for more ethical cohabitation. Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture tackles this severe matter within the framework of literary and cultural studies. The emphasis of the inquiry is on the various ways actual and fictional nonhumans are reconfigured in contemporary culture – although, as long as the domain of nonhumanity is carved in the negative space of humanity, addressing these issues will inevitably clamor for the reconfiguration of the human as well. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/reconfiguring-human-nonhuman-posthuman-literature-culture-sanna-karkulehto-aino-kaisa-koistinen-essi-varis/e/10.4324/9780429243042, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Feminist Science Fiction and Feminist Epistemology

Feminist Science Fiction and Feminist Epistemology PDF Author: Ritch Calvin
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319324705
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
This book argues that feminist science fiction shares the same concerns as feminist epistemology—challenges to the sex of the knower, the valuation of the abstract over the concrete, the dismissal of the physical, the focus on rationality and reason, the devaluation of embodied knowledge, and the containment of (some) bodies. Ritch Calvin argues that feminist science fiction asks questions of epistemology because those questions are central to making claims of subjectivity and identity. Calvin reveals how women, who have historically been marginal to the deliberations of philosophy and science, have made significant contributions to the reconsideration and reformulation of the epistemological models of the world and the individuals in it.

Posthuman Community Psychology

Posthuman Community Psychology PDF Author: Michael Richards
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000864685
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Posthuman Community Psychology is an exploration of mainstream psychology through a critical posthumanity perspective, examining psychology’s place in the world and its relationship with marginalised people, with a focus on people with disabilities. The book argues that the history of modern psychology is underpinned by reductionism and individualism, which is embedded within the contemporary psychology that we know today despite the challenges from critical and community psychologists who seek a more empowering, inclusive, and activist psychology. The posthuman community psychology ideas that emerge in this book examine and intersect with mainstream psychology, critical and community psychologies, critical posthumanities and disability studies to propose an imaginative, reflective, and relational new psychology that represents a collection of possibilities that do not remain entrenched in older ways of thinking about humans and human connections. Richards proposes that psychology has the potential to evolve and make a powerful and profound difference for marginalised people, but a genuine desire for change from psychologists is essential for this to happen. Illustrating the important considerations needed when examining the relationship between the discipline of psychology and marginalised people, this book is fascinating reading for community psychology students and academics, aspiring professional psychologists, community workers, and policy makers.