Inevitably Posthuman: An Appraisal through Literature

  • Chithra. J.L.

Abstract

Like all other living and non-living things around, man is constantly under characteristic changes. This adaptability towards positive changes especially concerning scientific advancements and technological growth endows certain privileges in comparison with the previous generations to the current human society. Thus, humans are no longer the ordinary people but, post-humansas their innate traits and features have modified. This evolution is thoroughly visible in divergent intellectual and aesthetic fields like art, architecture, cybernetics, ecology, ethology, geology, music, psychoanalysis, and much more. While humanism bestows the highest importance to man and placed humans as the epitome of beings, posthumanism is based on the assumption that even the physical constraints of humanity can be surpassed by the use of technology and augment biology. Literature adequately applies these apparent changes which integrally incorporates posthuman tendencies. A posthuman text inevitably reflects the central ideas of posthumanism and the writers tend to transcend the perceived limitations of text and writing with the power of imagination. Thats why we have superhuman characters and utopias or dystopias in contemporary works of popular science fiction. Moreover, posthumanism pauses innumerable ethical questions beyond its outwardly superb attire. Several novels of this kind unravel an apocalyptic-dystopian world in which nature-culture conflict is evident. The present study is a discussion on distinct features of posthumanism through a typical science fictionNancy Kress Beggars in Spain.

Published
2019-11-15
Section
Articles