Exploring humanness in nonhumans: The cyborg in contemporary fiction.

摘要

The portrayal of the cyborg in contemporary fiction has charged an investigation by literary scholars to determine the ways the cyborg represents technology in postmodernism. More importantly, the depiction of cyborgs in fiction causes readers and viewers to reevaluate what they "count" as human. The work of Jean Baudrillard, N. Katherine Hayles, Donna Haraway, and Marie-Laure Ryan suggests that speculative images of the cyborg represent the engagement of human beings and technology in postmodern society and beyond; their work also points to alternative ways of defining what it means to be human. This study examines the variations of the cyborg by investigating its portrayal in technologically infused contemporary film and literature: Richard Powers' novel Galatea 2.2, Phillip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Ridley Scott's director's cut of the film Blade Runner, and the Wachowski brothers' film The Matrix.