Rethinking 'the Human' in Dystopian Times
Modified Bodies and the Re-/Deconstruction of Human Exceptionalism in Margaret Atwood's "MaddAddam" Trilogy and Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go"
Published on 11. July 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
322 pages
978-3-86821-753-7 (ISBN)
Description
At least since the turn of the 21st century, dystopian fiction flourishes once again. Contemporary narratives often ponder the threat posed by hierarchies and humanist concepts and critically reflect on an ideology which has to be overcome in times of rapid (biotechnological) progress, political instability, the loss of species diversity, the widening gap between rich and poor, climate change, glocal (ecological) crises, a crisis of 'the human' and similar challenges. Through their engagement with critical posthumanism and the imaginative creation of posthuman beings that defy clear-cut boundaries, biotechnological dystopias often facilitate a less discriminatory world view by revealing and questioning the ideologically motivated amalgamation of non/post/human bodies not conceded personhood. Situated at the intersection point of biotechnological, philosophical, (bio)ethical, literary and cultural discourses,
Rethinking 'the Human' in Dystopian Times
argues for a politics of inclusion and discloses how new viewpoints springing from dystopian extrapolations can allow for a more critical view on human exceptionalism. Alessandra Boller points out how especially Margaret Atwood's
MaddAddam
trilogy and Kazuo Ishiguro's
Never Let Me Go
challenge the ethics of an established (western) human value system, intertwined demarcation strategies based on race, class, gender or species, and the humanist concept of 'the human.'
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Trier
Germany
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Card cover
Dimensions
Height: 21 cm
Width: 14.8 cm
Weight
511 gr
ISBN-13
978-3-86821-753-7 (9783868217537)
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Content
Table of Contents
1 Dystopian Fiction - a Flourishing Genre and Its Potentials 1
1.1 Dystopian Texts and Motifs 1
1.2 Between Constructed Stability and Subversive Deconstruction:
Varieties of Non/Post/Human Bodies 6
1.3 Outline and Objectives 17
2 Definitions and Surveys of Utopian, Dystopian and (Post-)Apocalyptic Fiction 23
2.1 Defining Utopia and Dystopia 23
2.2 Defining Apocalypse 25
2.3 A Concise Survey of Utopian and Dystopian Fiction 26
3 Body Discourses, Demarcation Strategies and the Regulation of the Human Body 39
3.1 Normativity, Normalism and the Normal Ideal 42
3.2 Exceptional, Deviant and Dangerous Human Bodies 45
3.3 Technologies of Power 54
3.4 The Normal and the Pathological 58
3.5 Problematising the Stable Western Body 61
4 Human Exceptionalism, Its Strategies and Its Challenges 67
4.1 Human Exceptionalism and 'the Animal' 68
4.2 New Bodies Challenging 'the Human' 82
4.2.1 Genetic Engineering and Its Media Coverage 85
4.2.2 Organ Transplantation, Eugenic Cloning and Dystopian Extrapolations 90
4.2.3 The (Post)Human and Unstable Bodies, Blurred Boundaries and Symbolic Meanings 94
4.3 (Bio)Ethics, Sympathy and Personhood 100
4.3.1 Ethics and Bioethics 101
4.3.2 Sympathy and Forms of Speciesism
104
4.3.3 Concepts of Personhood 110
5 The Body Modified and Its Implications in Eugenic,
Biopolitical and Biotechnological Dystopian Fiction 114
5.1 Eugenics and Dystopia 114
5.2 Human/Animal Splices in Margaret Atwood's Speculative MaddAddam Trilogy 121
5.2.1 The Segregated Society, Biotechnology and the Consumer Cult of the Body 124
5.2.1.1 Rule, Science! A Segregated World Controlled and Created by Genetic Engineers 126
5.2.1.2 The Body as Capitalist Consumer Object 136
5.2.2 Dangerous Bodies and the Man-Made Apocalypse 148
5.2.2.1 The Anthropocene and Negative Human Exceptionalism 149
5.2.2.2 The Apocalyptic Waterless Flood and Its (Human) Survivors' Coping Strategies 156
5.2.2.3 Atwood's Ambiguous Updating of the 'Reckless Scientist' 161
5.2.3 Human/Animal Splices and the Redistribution of Human Properties 164
5.2.3.1 Inverting Monstrosity 165
5.2.3.2 Human/Animal Splices and Human/Posthuman Interaction 170
5.2.3.3 The Difficult Implementation of Inter- and Intraspecies Demarcation Strategies 180
5.2.3.4 Religion and Mythmaking, Language and Culture, Death and Mourning 193
5.2.4 Interim Conclusion: Margaret Atwood's Ustopian Reassessment of 'the Human' 205
5.3 The Clone in Literature and Media 210
5.4 Clone Bodies in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go 215
5.4.1 The Clones' Education and the Establishment of Demarcation Strategies 216
5.4.1.1 Heterotopias, Dystopian and Utopian Elements 218
5.4.1.2 Difference and Dichotomies 224
5.4.2 Normalising Practices, Biopower, Eugenics and Discrimination 233
5.4.2.1 The Donation Programme and the 'Humane Movement' 233
5.4.2.2 The Maintenance of the Individual Body and the Body of the Population 237
5.4.2.3 Threatened (Bodily) Boundaries 243
5.4.3 Is the Clone More Human/e Than 'the Human'? 247
5.4.3.1 Mechanistic Views of the Clone Body 248
5.4.3.2 A Reconsideration of the Clone's Status of Personhood 251
5.4.3.3 Intertextuality, the Narrative Situation and (Euphemistic) Language 258
5.4.4 Mark Romanek's Film Adaptation Never Let Me Go (2010) 272
5.4.5 Interim Conclusion:
The Unmasking of Arbitrary Demarcation Strategies and the Lack of (Post)Human Discontent 280
6 Conclusion 286
6.1 Overall Findings 286
6.2 Challenged Ideologies 289
7 Bibliography 300
1 Dystopian Fiction - a Flourishing Genre and Its Potentials 1
1.1 Dystopian Texts and Motifs 1
1.2 Between Constructed Stability and Subversive Deconstruction:
Varieties of Non/Post/Human Bodies 6
1.3 Outline and Objectives 17
2 Definitions and Surveys of Utopian, Dystopian and (Post-)Apocalyptic Fiction 23
2.1 Defining Utopia and Dystopia 23
2.2 Defining Apocalypse 25
2.3 A Concise Survey of Utopian and Dystopian Fiction 26
3 Body Discourses, Demarcation Strategies and the Regulation of the Human Body 39
3.1 Normativity, Normalism and the Normal Ideal 42
3.2 Exceptional, Deviant and Dangerous Human Bodies 45
3.3 Technologies of Power 54
3.4 The Normal and the Pathological 58
3.5 Problematising the Stable Western Body 61
4 Human Exceptionalism, Its Strategies and Its Challenges 67
4.1 Human Exceptionalism and 'the Animal' 68
4.2 New Bodies Challenging 'the Human' 82
4.2.1 Genetic Engineering and Its Media Coverage 85
4.2.2 Organ Transplantation, Eugenic Cloning and Dystopian Extrapolations 90
4.2.3 The (Post)Human and Unstable Bodies, Blurred Boundaries and Symbolic Meanings 94
4.3 (Bio)Ethics, Sympathy and Personhood 100
4.3.1 Ethics and Bioethics 101
4.3.2 Sympathy and Forms of Speciesism
104
4.3.3 Concepts of Personhood 110
5 The Body Modified and Its Implications in Eugenic,
Biopolitical and Biotechnological Dystopian Fiction 114
5.1 Eugenics and Dystopia 114
5.2 Human/Animal Splices in Margaret Atwood's Speculative MaddAddam Trilogy 121
5.2.1 The Segregated Society, Biotechnology and the Consumer Cult of the Body 124
5.2.1.1 Rule, Science! A Segregated World Controlled and Created by Genetic Engineers 126
5.2.1.2 The Body as Capitalist Consumer Object 136
5.2.2 Dangerous Bodies and the Man-Made Apocalypse 148
5.2.2.1 The Anthropocene and Negative Human Exceptionalism 149
5.2.2.2 The Apocalyptic Waterless Flood and Its (Human) Survivors' Coping Strategies 156
5.2.2.3 Atwood's Ambiguous Updating of the 'Reckless Scientist' 161
5.2.3 Human/Animal Splices and the Redistribution of Human Properties 164
5.2.3.1 Inverting Monstrosity 165
5.2.3.2 Human/Animal Splices and Human/Posthuman Interaction 170
5.2.3.3 The Difficult Implementation of Inter- and Intraspecies Demarcation Strategies 180
5.2.3.4 Religion and Mythmaking, Language and Culture, Death and Mourning 193
5.2.4 Interim Conclusion: Margaret Atwood's Ustopian Reassessment of 'the Human' 205
5.3 The Clone in Literature and Media 210
5.4 Clone Bodies in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go 215
5.4.1 The Clones' Education and the Establishment of Demarcation Strategies 216
5.4.1.1 Heterotopias, Dystopian and Utopian Elements 218
5.4.1.2 Difference and Dichotomies 224
5.4.2 Normalising Practices, Biopower, Eugenics and Discrimination 233
5.4.2.1 The Donation Programme and the 'Humane Movement' 233
5.4.2.2 The Maintenance of the Individual Body and the Body of the Population 237
5.4.2.3 Threatened (Bodily) Boundaries 243
5.4.3 Is the Clone More Human/e Than 'the Human'? 247
5.4.3.1 Mechanistic Views of the Clone Body 248
5.4.3.2 A Reconsideration of the Clone's Status of Personhood 251
5.4.3.3 Intertextuality, the Narrative Situation and (Euphemistic) Language 258
5.4.4 Mark Romanek's Film Adaptation Never Let Me Go (2010) 272
5.4.5 Interim Conclusion:
The Unmasking of Arbitrary Demarcation Strategies and the Lack of (Post)Human Discontent 280
6 Conclusion 286
6.1 Overall Findings 286
6.2 Challenged Ideologies 289
7 Bibliography 300