Posthumanist Readings in Dystopian Young Adult Fiction: Negotiating the Nature/Culture Divide

146 Pages·2019·0.942 MB·English

by  Jennifer Harrison

Posthumanist Readings in Dystopian
Young Adult Fiction
Children and Youth in Popular Culture
SeriesEditor:DebbieOlson,MissouriValleyCollege
Children and Youth in Popular Culture features works that interrogate the various
representationsofchildrenandyouthinpopularculture,aswellasthereceptionofthese
representations. The series is international in scope, recognizing the transnational dis-
coursesaboutchildrenandyouththathavehelpedshapemodernand postmodernchild-
hoodsandadolescence.Thescopeoftheseriesrangesfromsuchsubjectsasgender,race,
class,andeconomicconditionsandtheirglobalintersectionswithissuesrelevanttochil-
drenand youthand their representation in global popular culture: children and youth at
play,geographiesandspaces(includingtheWorldWideWeb),materialcultures,adultifi-
cation,sexuality,childrenof/inwar,religion,childrenofdiaspora,youthandthelaw,and
more.
AdvisoryBoard
LuEllaD’Amico,WhitworthUniversity
MarkusP.J.Bohlmann,SenecaCollege
VibianaBowmanCvetkovic,RutgersUniversity
AdrianSchober,AustralianCatholicUniversity,Melbourne
TitlesintheSeries
PosthumanistReadingsinDystopianYoungAdultFiction:NegotiatingtheNature/Cul-
tureDivide,byJenniferHarrison
TheSidekickComesofAge:HowYoungAdultLiteratureisShiftingtheSidekickPara-
digm,byStephenM.Zimmerly
FemaleAdolescentSexualityintheUnitedStates,1850-1965,byAnnKordas
TweencomGirls:GenderandAdolescenceinDisneyandNickelodeonSitcoms,byPatrice
A.Oppliger
RepresentingAgencyinPopularCulture:ChildrenandYouthonPage,Screen,andIn
Between,editedbyIngridE.CastroandJessicaClark
TheFeelingChild:AffectandPoliticsinLatinAmericanLiteratureandFilm,editedby
PhilippaPage,InelaSelimović,andCamillaSutherland
TheRhetoricalPowerofChildren’sLiterature,editedbyJohnH.Saunders
ChildrenintheFilmsofStevenSpielberg,editedbyDebbieOlsonandAdrianSchober
TheChildinWorldCinema,editedbyDebbieOlson
Girls’SeriesFictionandAmericanPopularCulture,editedbyLuellaD’Amico
IndiansinVictorianChildren’sNarratives:AnimalizingtheNative,1830–1930,byShilpa
BhatDaithota
TheRhetoricalPowerofChildren’sLiterature,editedbyJohnSaunders
MisfitChildren:AnInquiryintoChildhoodBelongings,editedbyMarkusP.J.Bohlmann
TheAméricasAward:HonoringLatino/aChildren’sandYoungAdultLiteratureofthe
Americas,editedbyLarettaHenderson
CriticalChildhoodStudiesandthePracticeofInterdisciplinarity:DiscipliningtheChild,
editedbyMagdalenaZolkosandJoannaFaulkner
Posthumanist Readings in Dystopian
Young Adult Fiction
Negotiating the Nature/Culture Divide
Jennifer Harrison
LEXINGTONBOOKS
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Harrison,Jennifer,1983–author.
Title:Posthumanistreadingsindystopianyoungadultfiction:negotiating
thenature/culturedivide/JenniferHarrison.
Description:Lanham:LexingtonBooks,2019.|Series:Childrenandyouthin
popularculture|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2019004924(print)|LCCN2019012971(ebook)|ISBN
9781498573368(Electronic)|ISBN9781498573351(cloth:alk.paper)
Subjects:LCSH:Youngadultfiction,American—21stcentury—Historyand
criticism.|Dystopiasinliterature.
Classification:LCCPS374.Y57(ebook)|LCCPS374.Y57H372019(print)|
DDC813/.6099283—dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019004924
TMThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican
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PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
Contents
Introduction:YoungAdultDystopiaandthePosthumanPerspective 1
1 CarrieRyan’sForestofHandsandTeeth:Sex,Infection,and
Hopelessness 19
2 LoisLowry’sTheGiver:Biotechnology,Wilderness,and
Government 35
3 PatrickNess’sChaosWalkingTrilogy:Languageandthe
NonhumanOther 51
4 NealShusterman’sUnwind:PosthumanRecyclingandthe
DeathoftheHero 67
5 PhilipReeve’sMortalEnginesSeries:Posthumanism,
Evolution,Apocalypse,andTime 83
6 AdamRappandMikeCavallaro’sDecelerateBlue:Solarpunk,
Consumerism,andthePosthumanistFuture 103
Conclusion:YoungAdultDystopiaandthePosthumanPerspective 119
Bibliography 127
Index 137
AbouttheAuthor 139
v

Introduction
Young Adult Dystopia and the
Posthuman Perspective
Going back at least as far as Lois Lowry’s The Giver, and perhaps even
furtherbacktosci-ficlassicssuchasZforZachariah,DayoftheTriffids,and
The Handmaid’s Tale, dystopia has proven enduringly popular with young
adult (YA) audiences, and has enjoyed a boom in popularity following the
publication(andsubsequenttranslationintoblockbusterfilms)ofseriessuch
asVeronicaRoth’sDivergentandSuzanneCollins’HungerGames.TheYA
dystopiangenrecontinuestodevelopinnewandexcitingdirections,expand-
ing into comics and graphic novels, as well as film and television with texts
such as Adam Rapp and Mike Cavallaro’s Decelerate Blue, Columbia Pic-
tures’The5thWave,andHBO’sThe100.
With greater popularity, however, has come greater scrutiny. Media crit-
ics have delighted in condescending remarks about the trend of “adults”
succumbing to the pleasures of the “childish” YA genre; some have even
suggestedthatreaders“setasidethetransparentlytrashystufflike Divergent
andTwilight,whichnoonedefendsasseriousliterature”(Graham,2014).Of
course, what such condescension ignores is the tremendous influence these
immensely popular “trashy” books and series have on large numbers of
young and adult readers alike. Professor of English Lisa Rowe Fraustino
(2011)offersthefollowingexplanationforthegrowingfascinationwithYA
dystopiainthepopularimagination:
Wewanttoholdontoourindividuality,ourhumanity,ourabilitytoloveand
connect to others. We have always wanted to hold on, but in today’s global
communicationsnetworkwecan’tavoidfacingoverwhelmingobstacles.The
1
2 Introduction
more we understand how small and powerless we really are against the im-
menseforcesthatcontrolourexistence,themoreweyearntofeelmeaningful.
Part of a wider New York Times debate on the importance and relevance of
theYAdystopiangenre,Fraustino’sremarkssituatethegenrefirmlywithina
sociopoliticalcontextspecifictotheconditionsofaglobaltechnologicalera.
Assuch,itbringsintofocustheurgentneedforadefenseofYAfictionasa
genrethatisnotonlypopular,butalsosociallyandpoliticallyrelevant.
Fraustino’s comments are interesting not only because they set out to
defend the relevance of the YA dystopia genre, but also because they high-
lightafundamentaltensionintheglobaltechnologicalerabetweenhumanist
valuesandideologies(“ourindividuality”and“ourabilitytolove”forexam-
ple)andlivedexperienceswhichhaveincreasinglycometobeunderstoodas
posthuman. Posthumanism can be broadly understood as any representation
orcriticaldiscoursethatspeculatesaboutradicalchangesinwhatitmeansto
be human. Some of these are bodily changes, which speculate about the
effects of technologies such as artificial intelligence, IVF and designer ba-
bies, or mind-altering pharmaceuticals. Other changes are social and politi-
cal, and include expanding understanding of alternative sexualities, the
differently abled, animals, and so on. Still more speculative changes are
philosophical in nature and question the assumption that human beings are
separateanddistinctfromnonhumanotherandtheirenvironment.Aswewill
seeshortly,alliterationsoftheposthumanproblematizehumanistnotionsof
a universal human nature (“all humans are autonomous individuals” or “all
humans love”) upon which the desires identified by Fraustino are based. As
Fraustino’s comments suggest, these desires are increasingly untenable and
unrealisticinaworldthatisincreasinglyposthuman.Dystopia,therefore,can
beunderstoodasaliteraldepictionofthistension—aportrayalofthefailure
of humanist ideologies. Despite the apocalyptic nature of many dystopian
narratives, dystopia is not the threat of the end of the human (who always
seemstokeepgoing)butthethreatoftheendofhumanism.
Morespecifically,mostdystopias(includingYAdystopias)primarilyen-
gagewithasingle,overarchinghumanistassumption:thathumanbeingscan
bedefinedintheirdifferencetoandseparationfromanenvironment1ofnon-
humanothers(with “nonhuman”defined both looselyandsubjectively most
of the time). Anthropologist Layla AbdelRahim (2015) argues convincingly
in her introduction to Children’s Literature, Domestication, and Social
Foundation that much of human civilization has been premised on this no-
tion, and that the values and practices of many human societies take protec-
tionfromadangerousandhostileenvironmentasastartingpoint.Sheargues
that this assumption provides justification for societies structured around
notions of control, eventually culminating in the social philosophies of
Introduction 3
HobbesandLocke,whichwerethemselvesfoundationaltohumanismas we
knowittoday.
In many YA dystopias, however, humanist control—and therefore hu-
manist society—is violently disrupted by the dissolution of the barrier be-
tween human and environment. Whether that disruption is the result of
zombies, nuclear holocaust, warfare, or natural disaster, these dystopias’
apocalypticstartingpointsbreakdownthebarrierbetweensocietyandenvi-
ronment,exposinghumanbodiesandmindsto thehostile “outside.” Human
beings in these narratives return to a state of vulnerability, at the mercy of
sickness, the climate, predators, and inter-human exploitation and violence.
However, as they depict human beings attempting to adapt and survive in
these newconditions, it is often the original (humanist) society and philoso-
phies that are called into question: that which led to apocalypse in the first
place. Many YA dystopias, therefore, now flirt with the idea that it may not
bethehumanlossofcontrol,butthehumanneedordesireforcontrolthatis
dystopian.
The purpose of this book is argue that in YA dystopian fiction, YA
authorsareinfactadoptingdidacticmodesideallysuitedtoasocialethicsof
theAnthropocene.Theydosobyexploringposthumanistpossibilitiesalong-
sidetheirattackonhumanistideologies:YAdystopiantextsprovide models
for how young people can positively negotiate between the development of
individualsubjectivityandcollectiveidentity;theyoffernewwaysofconsid-
ering concepts such as time, progress, evolution, and development; they re-
considerbinaryconstructionsandhierarchies;theyrenegotiateandreconsid-
er social structures such as the family and the community; and finally, they
depictidentityandbodiesasfluid,fractured,andmutable.Furthermore,what
isoffundamentalimportanceisthewayinwhicheachofthesefunctionsties
into a larger reconsideration of the relationship of human individuals to an
environment that has traditionally been construed in humanist society as
hostile,threatening,andseparate.Whethertheseauthorsandtextsareaccept-
ing,ambivalent,orhostiletotheposthumansocietiesandvaluestheydepict,
theyallexploretheendofhumanismasarealandimmanentthreat.
HUMANISMANDTHEANTHROPOCENE:
WHEREWEARENOW
If one wishes to understand the ways in which humanist ideology might
contributetomanyoftheissueswefacetoday,thendystopianliteratureisan
ideal starting place. The very definition of a “utopia”—and by extension of
dystopiaalso—isbasedonhumanistassumptionsaboutthebinaryseparation
ofthehumanfromtheenvironment,whichpositsthecarefullyplannedsoci-
eties of Thomas Moore and other utopian writers as the height of human