Disability and the Posthuman: Bodies, Technology and Cultural Futures

Description

Disability and the Posthuman is the first study to analyse cultural representations and deployments of disability as they interact with posthumanist theories of technology and embodiment. Working across a wide range of texts, many new to critical enquiry, in contemporary writing, film and cultural practice from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Japan, it covers a diverse range of topics, including: contemporary cultural theory and aesthetics; design, engineering and gender; the visualisation of prosthetic technologies in the representation of war and conflict; and depictions of work, time and sleep. While noting the potential limitations of posthumanist assessments of the technologized body, the study argues that there are exciting, productive possibilities and subversive potentials in the dialogue between disability and posthumanism as they generate dissident crossings of cultural spaces. Such intersections cover both fictional/imagined and material/grounded examples of disability and look to a future in which the development of technology and complex embodiment of disability presence align to produce sustainable yet radical creative and critical voices. Cover Contents Acknowledgements Preface: In Search of the Emerald City: Lessons from the Tin Woodman Introduction:Disabling the Human Chapter 1: (Post)human Subjects, Disability Deployments Chapter 2: Design, Engineering and Gendering the Disabled Body Chapter 3: Visualising and Re-Membering Disability Body Politics in Filmic Representations of the ‘W Chapter 4: Reading Disability in a Time of Posthuman Work: Speed, Sleep and Embodiment Conclusion:On Not Wanting to End Bibliography Index