Science Fiction and Posthumanism in the Anthropocene

Jonathan Hay

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781350465978
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

With science fiction stories imagining futures and worlds vastly different from our own, and posthuman philosophies radically reconceptualising our species' place within our own world, this book is a deep dive into the similarities between science fiction studies and critical posthumanism and how they can be read together. Both fields fantasise about future technologies, envisage alienness through conversation with everyday life and both anticipate the Anthropocene as a dire source of rupture from the present. Drawing inspiration from these and other consonances, this book establishes a common theoretical ground between the two fields, upon which the two currents of future-oriented thought can meet and begin to share a common language. An investigation that draws critical currency from the everyday condition of our species in relation to technology and our perilous situation in the Anthropocene, the book observes posthumanism not just as a theoretical framework that may be applied to science fictional ideas, but also as an integral part of how it is that science fiction is generated. Featuring case studies of the work of prominent authors Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. Le Guin and Kim Stanley Robinson, alongside the BBC television series Doctor Who and the cult videogame Outer Wilds, Science Fiction and Posthumanism in the Anthropocene formulates a new critical paradigm which recognises the value of such works to posthumanist thought. Addressing those with an interest in either academic discipline, it demonstrates that urgent discourses around our shared future are more imperative now than ever before.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Foreword: From Cognitive Estrangement to Cognitive Engagement in Science Fiction
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Universe
• Chapter 2 Ursula K. Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle
• Chapter 3 Kim Stanley Robinson’s Oeuvre
• Chapter 4 Science Fiction and New Media
• Conclusion
• Notes
• References
• Biographical Note
• Index
• Imprint