Technology and Identity in Young Adult Fiction: The Posthuman Subject

by Victoria Flanagan

Technology and Identity in Young Adult Fiction is not a historical study or a survey of narrative plots, but takes a more conceptual approach that engages with the central ideas of the fragmented nature of posthuman identity, the concept of agency as distributed and collective and the role of embodiment in understandings of selfhood.

Genres: Research

213 pages, Hardcover

First published November 26, 2014

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've dipped into this important book multiple times over the years. A fantastic resource. Recommend.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, which is for scholars and advanced students, not for a general audience. It provides a pretty straightforward introduction to posthumanism, and is then very clear about what it is interested in: how young adult science fiction expresses posthumanist subjectivity by (slightly) non-traditional narrative techniques like focalising the novel through a cyborg voice, or through multiple voices. The premise is that YA literature until quite recently has presented very humanist forms of subjectivity, because a major point of YA literature is traditionally to help readers nagivate the transition from NOT having autonomy or agency to being free, rational, autonomous, humanist subjects. Flanagan cites several studies of YA sci fi that are really quite techno-dystopic (both the research and the science fiction novels) and says it's only in the last few years we have started to see a lot of science fiction for young adults with a more nuanced take on technology. The book discusses a lot of different examples of such science fiction, and is handy simply for its list of interesting novels to read.