Format:
1 Online-Ressource (xix, 243 pages)
ISBN:
0268075867
,
9780268075866
,
9780268158699
,
026815869X
Content:
This book provides a fresh and original reading of fictional narratives that raise the question of what it means to be human in the face of rapidly developing bioenhancement technologies. The author argues that works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walker Percy, Flannery O'Connor, Toni Morrison, George Saunders, Marilynne Robinson, Raymond Carver, James Tiptree, Jr., and Margaret Atwood must be reevaluated in light of their contributions to larger ethical questions. Drawing on a wide range of sources in philosophical and theological ethics, the author claims that these writers share a commitment to maintaining a category of personhood more meaningful than that allowed by utilitarian ethics. This book insists that because technology can never ask whether we should do something that we have the power to do, literature must step into that role. Through the vision of the writers she discusses, the author uncovers a deep critique of the ascendancy of personal autonomy as America’s most cherished value. This ascendancy, coupled with technology’s glamorous promises of happiness, helps to shape a utilitarian view of persons that makes responsible ethical behavior toward one another almost impossible. This book charts the essential role that literature must play in the continuing conversation of what it means to be human in a posthuman world
Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 190-232) and index
,
Posthuman vision -- Posthuman bodies -- Posthuman language -- From Posthuman individuals to human persons.
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780268022365
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0268022364
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe Lake, Christina Bieber Prophets of the posthuman ISBN 9780268022365
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0268022364
Language:
English
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