Posthuman Gothic

Description

Posthuman Gothic is an edited collection of thirteen chapters, and offers a structured, dialogical contribution to the discussion of the posthuman Gothic. Contributors explore the various ways in which posthuman thought intersects with Gothic textuality and mediality. The texts and media under discussion - from I am Legend to In the Flesh, and from Star Trek to The Truman Show, transgress the boundaries of genre, moving beyond the traditional scope of the Gothic. These texts, the contributors argue, destabilise ideas of the human in a number of ways. By confronting humanity and its Others, they introduce new perspectives on what we traditionally perceive as human. Drawing on key texts of both Gothic and posthumanist theory, the contributors explore such varied themes as posthuman vampire and zombie narratives, genetically modified posthumans, the posthuman in video games, film and TV, the posthuman as a return to nature, the posthuman's relation to classic monster narratives, and posthuman biohorror and theories of prometheanism and accelerationism. In its entirety, the volume offers a first attempt at addressing the various intersections of the posthuman and the Gothic in contemporary literature and media. Front Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Post/human/Gothic Part I: Organic 1. Zombie Apocalypse and the Conundrum of Posthumanity in David Wong’s Novels 2. Of Crakers and Men: Imagining the Future and Rethinking the Past in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy 3. Of Posthuman Vampires: Science, Blood and Becoming-With Part II: Undead 4. ‘Lovie – is the vampire so bad?’: Posthuman Rhetoric in Richard Matheson’s I am Legend 5. Coexistence and Hospitality: The Gothic Utopian Vision of True Blood 6. Forging Posthuman Identities in Dominic Mitchell’s In the Flesh 7. More than Human: Reading the Doppelgänger and Female Monstrosity in Television Vampires Part III: Evolving 8. There’s Something in There: The Posthuman Gothic Mind/Body Divide in Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake 9. Still Alive: Understanding Femininity in Valve’s Portal Games 10. Patchwork Girls: Reflections of Lost Female Identity in LouiseO’Neill’s Only Ever Yours Part IV: Reimagined 11. Being Virtual: The True (Posthu)man Show 12. The Posthuman Monstrous can only be Gothic, or Screening Alien Sex Fiends 13. Gothic Inhumanism: Prometheanism, Nanotechnology, Accelerationism Bibliography Index Back Cover