Seminar: Posthumanism: Ethics, Aesthetics, Technology
Seminar: Posthumanism: Ethics, Aesthetics, Technology
Prof. Elana Gomel
What does it mean to be a human being? This basic question is increasingly being answered in diverse and discordant ways by science, philosophy, literature, and popular culture. The rise of posthumanism as a new and powerful trend in the humanities has been impacted by new technologies, such as the Internet, neuropharmacology, and genetic engineering. But posthumanism has also profoundly influenced social applications of science, and contributed to the politics of ecology, animal rights, reproduction, and other hot-button issues.
This seminar provides an historical and issue-oriented perspective on posthumanism. From the late-19th-century emergence of Darwinism and eugenics to the contemporary debates over ethics and human rights, we will explore how the basic idea of the human has developed and mutated in many different and self-contradictory ways. Our focus on the historical trajectory of posthumanism will ensure that such familiar pop-culture icons as the superhero, the cyborg, and the zombie will be illuminated by exploring their roots. And our survey of the main issues of posthumanism, such as the problematic of human and animal rights, techno-utopianism, and the ethics of transformation, will provide students with a map to navigate this rapidly growing and central field in the humanities.
For every class, the students will have read the background material and the fictional texts listed in the syllabus below. We will also discuss popular movies, such as Blade Runner, Ex Machina, X-Men, X-Men-Apocalypse, and others. A detailed list will be posted before the beginning of the semester. However, no specific dates will be assigned as the students are expected to watch them at their leisure.
The students will be asked to submit 3 written reports in the course of the semester and to deliver one class presentation, in addition to the final paper. The final seminar paper will consist of 18-25 pages (double space or 1.5 space, title page and bibliography not included). Students who are taking the course as an elective will submit a final referat paper of 8-13 pages (double space or 1.5 space, title page and bibliography not included).
Final grade will be calculated as follows: 70% - the seminar paper; 20% - the average of the three written reports; 10% - class participation and presentation.
Class attendance and participation are mandatory!
Weekly Syllabus
Week 1. Man After Man
Introduction; movie clips; roundtable discussion
Readings: Cary Wolfe, “What is Posthumanism?”
Week 2. What Do You Mean, Human?
Readings: Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (excerpts); T. H. Huxley, Evolution and Ethics (excerpts)
Week 3. Get Rid of the Unfit
Readings: H.G. Wells, The Time Machine, Julian Huxley, “Eugenics and Society”, Philip K. Dick, “The Golden Man”
Week 4. Enter the Superman
Readings: Larry Tye, Superman : the high-flying history of America's most enduring hero (excerpts)
Olaf Stapledon, Odd John
Week 5. Transhumanism, Posthumanism, Anti-Humanism
Readings: Ray Kurtzweil, The Singularity is Near (excerpts), Rosi Braidotti, The Posthuman (excerpts), Michel Foucault The Order of Things (excerpts)
Week 6. The Cyborg
Readings: Donna Haraway, “The Cyborg Manifesto”, From Envisioning the Human Self: (Re-)Constructions of the Human Body (Judith Rathe, ed)
Peter Watt, “The Island”, Greg Egan, “Chaff”
Week 7. The Animal
Readings: Peter Singer Animal Liberation (excerpt); Humanimalia: online journal; Sherryl Vint, Animal Alterity (excerpt)
James Tiptree, “The Psychologist Who Would Not Do Awful Things to Rats”
Week 8. The Alien
Readings: Elana Gomel, Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism: Beyond the Golden Rule (excerpt)
Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild”, Ted Chiang, “Story of Your Life”
Week 9. The Zombie
Readings: Colin Whitehead, Zone One
Kyle Bishop, American Zombie Gothic : the rise and fall (and rise) of the walking dead in popular culture (excerpt)
Week 10. The Politics of Posthumanism
Readings: Pramod K. Nayar, Posthumanism (excerpts)
Week 11. Conclusion
Roundtable discussions and presentations
