Wow! eBook
Posthumanism: A Critical Analysis
Author(s): Stefan Herbrechter (Author)
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Publication Date: 1 Aug. 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 248 pages
- ISBN-10: 1780938373
- ISBN-13: 9781780938370
Book Description
Who comes after the human? This is the question that posthumanists are taking as their starting point. This critical introduction understands posthumanism as a discourse, which, in principle, includes everything that has been and is being said about the figure of the ‘posthuman’. It outlines the genealogy of the various posthuman ‘scenarios’ in circulation and engages with their theoretical and philosophical assumptions and social and political implications. It does so by connecting the philosophical debate about the future of humanity with a range of texts, including examples from new media, popular culture, science and the media.
Editorial Reviews
Review
One welcomes Stefan Herberechter’s
Posthumanism to the posthumanism debates. His approach puts critical pressure in particular upon simplistic equations of technological prostheses and posthuman futures. Herbrechter develops an intellectual genealogy situating the varieties of posthumanism in relation to anticipatory strains in philosophy from Nietzsche to Derrida and in related critical practices of postmodernism and poststructuralism. Subsequent discussion ranges across posthumanist frontiers from matters of embodiment, the literary imaginary, disciplinarity, and digitalization, to the interplays of deconstruction and systems theory and of bio- and thanato-politics. Herbrechter’s arguments are persuasive. His exposition is modest and lucid. Posthumanism will bring students new to posthumanism up to speed as well as sharpen scholarly debate.With apocalyptic voices about the human and humanism all around us, this genealogy and cultural analysis of our posthuman condition stands out as a very welcome alternative of thinking the end(s) of Man, demonstrating that the critical humanities are needed more than ever.
Review 31
