Screening posthumanism: humanness, embodiment and artificial people in 21st century science-fiction film and television.
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Film & Television Studies
Abstract
This project aims to investigate how, within contemporary science-fiction film and television,
technologies come to be inscribed with ideas of 'humanness' (Wood, 2002). It will explore this inscription
of the human onto the technological through varying modes of embodiment, from the intangible to the
tangible. Posthumanism, although a contested term, can broadly be thought of as a rethinking of what it
means to be human, specifically, the ways evolutionary, ecological and technological advancements
affect Enlightenment definitions of humanism (Wolfe, 2010). Science-fiction regularly envisions
posthuman futures of human displacement through narratives of AI, cyborgs and holograms. These
technologies have been discussed under two broad lines of argument. The first is that concepts of
'humanness', such as gender and community, are inscribed onto technology to make it more
understandable and manageable. This renders technology 'safe' and keeps intact the conceptual
categories of humanness (Wood, 2002). The second is that technological subjects inscribed with
humanness open up and problematise the very definitions of what it means to be human in posthumanist
fashion (Herbrechter, 2013). My intervention will show that these two conflicting approaches are
negotiated simultaneously within contemporary science-fiction film and television. I hypothesise that
definitions of what it means to be human are simultaneously upheld and challenged within a single text,
and will elucidate this conflict through close textual analysis and the framework of posthumanism.
technologies come to be inscribed with ideas of 'humanness' (Wood, 2002). It will explore this inscription
of the human onto the technological through varying modes of embodiment, from the intangible to the
tangible. Posthumanism, although a contested term, can broadly be thought of as a rethinking of what it
means to be human, specifically, the ways evolutionary, ecological and technological advancements
affect Enlightenment definitions of humanism (Wolfe, 2010). Science-fiction regularly envisions
posthuman futures of human displacement through narratives of AI, cyborgs and holograms. These
technologies have been discussed under two broad lines of argument. The first is that concepts of
'humanness', such as gender and community, are inscribed onto technology to make it more
understandable and manageable. This renders technology 'safe' and keeps intact the conceptual
categories of humanness (Wood, 2002). The second is that technological subjects inscribed with
humanness open up and problematise the very definitions of what it means to be human in posthumanist
fashion (Herbrechter, 2013). My intervention will show that these two conflicting approaches are
negotiated simultaneously within contemporary science-fiction film and television. I hypothesise that
definitions of what it means to be human are simultaneously upheld and challenged within a single text,
and will elucidate this conflict through close textual analysis and the framework of posthumanism.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Catherine Constable (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Liam Rogers (Student) |