This timely book examines the rise of posthumanism as both a material condition and a developing philosophical-ethical project in the age of cloning, gene engineering, organ transplants and implants.
Nayar first maps the political and philosophical critiques of traditional humanism, revealing its exclusionary and ‘speciesist’ politics that position the human as a distinctive and dominant life form. He then contextualizes the posthumanist vision which, drawing upon biomedical, engineering and techno-scientific studies, concludes that human consciousness is shaped by its co-evolution with other life forms, and our human form inescapably influenced by tools and technology. Finally the book explores posthumanism’s roots in disability studies, animal studies and bioethics to underscore the constructed nature of ‘normalcy’ in bodies, and the singularity of species and life itself.
As this book powerfully demonstrates, posthumanism marks a radical reassessment of the human as constituted by symbiosis, assimilation, difference and dependence upon and with other species. Mapping the terrain of these far-reaching debates, Posthumanism will be an invaluable companion to students of cultural studies and modern and contemporary literature.
About the Author
Pramod K. Nayar is a member of the Department of English at the University of Hyderabad, India.
Features
State-of-the-art overview of the complex terrain of posthumanist theorizing in literary studies and cultural studies
Explores broad interdisciplinary contributions to posthumanism, from philosophy, bioethics, biomedical sciences, disability and animal studies
The first book-length treatment of this cutting-edge area pitched for undergraduate student readers
Serves both as a survey of this emergent field and an intervention within it
