The Aesthetics of the Anthropocene: Posthumanism and Contemporary Science Fiction
- Submitting institution
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University of Chester
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 27-13/620308
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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- Book title
- Research on Marxist Aesthetics (Volume 19, Issue 1)
- Publisher
- Shanghai Jaio Tong University
- ISBN
- 9787511730725
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- January
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- -
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- Yes
- English abstract
- This essay examines posthumanism through the lens of contemporary science fiction (SF), using Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy and Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl case studies. It argues that the Cartesian paradigm of the rational human subject as free agent has come under strain, to the extent that it’s becoming replaced by the posthuman. Narratives of SF can be planetary in scope, which situates our species in its ecological and material contexts, and allows for technological alteration of the human without violating its own conventions; it’s therefore an excellent vehicle for a Marxist analysis of the posthuman in contemporary culture.