The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Posthuman

by Bruce Clarke (Editor), Manuela Rossini (Editor)

The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Posthuman is the first work of its kind to gather diverse critical treatments of the posthuman and posthumanism together in a single volume. Fifteen scholars from six different countries address the historical and aesthetic dimensions of posthuman figures alongside posthumanism as a new paradigm in the critical humanities. The three parts and their chapters trace the history of the posthuman in literature and other media, including film and video games, and identify major political, philosophical, and techno-scientific issues raised in the literary and cinematic narratives of the posthuman and posthumanist discourses. The volume surveys the key works, primary modes, and critical theories engaged by depictions of the posthuman and discussions about posthumanism.

Genres: Nonfiction

280 pages, Hardcover

Published December 15, 2016

Reviews

[Sammy Mylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

anthropocentric humanism requires us to think of humanity as unique in our skills, with coherent and unified selves, and rightfully dominant over everything else (animals, technology, non-living elements)

posthumanism asks us to reconsider the boundaries we draw around what we consider human and non-human, and reveals that we have never been unique or coherent or superior - rightly so!!!!

anyways let’s all embrace ego death so we can be postgender beings together

fave essays:
science fiction by lisa yaszek and jason w. ellis
film by anneke smelik
bodies by manuela rossini
technologies by r. l. rutsky

[Mary Tsiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Claire Colebrook's chapter on Eternal Recurrences is fire. Honestly, the best way to end a collection of ideas that sometimes seem to stray from the original interest. (Call me oldfashioned and elitist, but I can't accept terms such as 'electracy' to talk about e-Lit and code as new forms of 'poetry'). But then again, the posthuman is a challenging subject full of mutations and one seems to always strive to take into account all narratives that determine the multitude of realisations of a 'future' existence. ''Living the present with these multiple futures is not only posthumanist in its acceptance of times and worlds beyond our own; it is also hyper-political, for rather than assume the value and existence of 'our' future and survival, the question of just 'who' we are remains open.''
In other words, I accept my posthumanism, I don't know if it accepts me yet.

[Can Urla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in preparation for my thesis. Even though it is very well prepared with a wide range of essays from academic scholars, I found this book a bit incomplete because it does not create an established frame on what posthumanism actually is/means. Instead, the academic scholars directly engage with the topic regarding their own relations with posthuman/ism/s.

I found many essays unhelpful. Sadly, most of them complicated the topic for me or had nothing to do with posthumanism. However, I found the essays, ''Science Fiction by
lisa yaszek and jason w. ellis'', ''Postmodern by stefan herbrechter'' and ''Technologies''
r. l. rutsky - still a bit unfocused -'' really helpful.

I do not recommend this one unless you are very knowledgeable about the notion of posthumanism and the posthuman