Biopunk Dystopias Genetic Engineering, Society and Science Fiction
Lars Schmeink
(Author)
Description
Biopunk Dystopias' contends that we find ourselves at a historical nexus, defined by the rise of biology as the driving force of scientific progress, a strongly grown mainstream attention given to genetic engineering in the wake of the Human Genome Project (1990-2003), the changingsociological view of a liquid modern society, and shifting discourses on the posthuman, including a critical posthumanism that decenters the privileged subject of humanism. The book argues that this historical nexus produces a specific cultural formation in the form of biopunk, a subgenre evolved
from the cyberpunk of the 1980s. The analysis deals with dystopian science fiction artifacts of different media from the year 2000 onwards that project a posthuman intervention into contemporary socio-political discourse based in liquid modernity in the cultural formation of biopunk. Biopunk makes
use of current posthumanist conceptions in order to criticize contemporary reality as already dystopian, warning that a future will only get worse, and that society needs to reverse its path, or else destroy all life on this planet. As Rosi Braidotti argues, there is a posthuman agreement that
contemporary science and biotechnologies affect the very fibre and structure of the living and have altered dramatically our understanding of what counts as the basic frame of reference for the human today (40). The proposed book analyzes this alteration as directors, creators, authors, and artists
from the field of science fiction extrapolate it from current trends.
Product Details
Price
$55.20
Publisher
Liverpool University Press
Publish Date
January 01, 2017
Pages
288
Dimensions
6.2 X 9.3 X 0.8 inches | 1.25 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781781383766
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About the Author
Lars Schmeink is Professor of Media Studies at the Institut fur Kultur- und Medienmanagement of the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Hamburg and the editor of of Realities: Establishing Research on the Fantastic in Europe. (Berlin: DeGruyter, 2012).
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Reviews
"Each discussion engages thoroughly with relevant scholarship, from biopolitics to game studies to creature films and the horror genre. Together, they make a convincing case that biological themes are prominent in contemporary sf across media, appearing in works that are marked by a critically dystopian sensibility." --Rebecca Wilbanks, Science Fiction Studies Review
'Schmeink brings together perspectives of various disciplines and theoretical approaches, including sociology, human-animal studies, monster studies and game studies, which not only contributes to gaining insight in his analysis, but also the scientific discourse for a variety other fields opens. The discursive link that Schmeink develops between scientific progress, economic interests, social change and fiction as an instrument of cultural intervention represents the scientific and social added value of Biopunk Dystopias.' (Translated from German) -- Madeline Becker, MEDIENwissenschaft
"Biopunk Dystopias is a strong contribution to twenty-first-century science fiction studies and studies of dystopian fiction, but also will interest critics invested in studies of literary and filmic representations of late capitalism, biopower, and necropolitics."
The Year's Work in English Studies