Technology and Identity in Young Adult Fiction: The Posthuman Subject PDF
Preview Technology and Identity in Young Adult Fiction: The Posthuman Subject
CriticalApproachestoChildren’sLiterature SeriesEditors:KerryMallanandClareBradford Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature is an innovative series concerned withthebestcontemporaryscholarshipandcriticismonchildren’sandyoung adultliterature,film,andmediatexts.Theseriesaddressesnewanddevelop- ing areas of children’s literature research as well as bringing contemporary perspectives to historical texts. The series has a distinctive take on scholar- ship,deliveringqualityworksofcriticismwritteninanaccessiblestylefora rangeofreaders,bothacademicandprofessional.Theseriesisinvaluablefor undergraduate students in children’s literature as well as advanced students andestablishedscholars. Titlesinclude: CherieAllan PLAYINGWITHPICTUREBOOKS PostmodernandthePostmodernesque ClairBradford THEMIDDLEAGESINCHILDREN’SLITERATURE ClareBradford,KerryMallan,JohnStephensandRobynMcCallum NEWWORLDORDERSINCONTEMPORARYCHILDREN’SLITERATURE AliceCurry ENVIRONMENTALCRISISINYOUNGADULTFICTION APoeticsofEarth HelenA.Fairlie REVALUINGBRITISHBOYS’STORYPAPERS,1918–1939 VictoriaFlanagan TECHNOLOGYANDIDENTITYINYOUNGADULTFICTION ThePosthumanSubject MargaretMackey NARRATIVE PLEASURES IN YOUNG ADULT NOVELS, FILMS AND VIDEO GAMES KerryMallan SECRETS,LIESANDCHILDREN’SFICTION AndrewO’Malley CHILDREN’SLITERATURE,POPULARCULTUREANDROBINSONCRUSOE ChristopherParkes CHILDREN’SLITERATUREANDCAPITALISM FictionsofSocialMobilityinBritain,1850–1914 AmyRatelle ANIMALITYANDCHILDREN’SLITERATUREANDFILM MavisReimer SERIALITYANDTEXTSFORYOUNGPEOPLE TheCompulsiontoRepeat KarenSands-O’ConnorandMariettaFrank INTERNATIONALISMINCHILDREN’SSERIES HazelSheekyBird CLASS,LEISUREANDNATIONALIDENTITYINBRITISHCHILDREN’SLITER- ATURE,1918–1950 MichelleSmith EMPIREINBRITISHGIRLS’LITERATUREANDCULTURE Forthcomingtitles: CaterinaSinibaldi TRANSLATINGCHILDREN’SLITERATUREUNDERITALIANFASCISM CriticalApproachestoChildren’sLiterature SeriesStandingOrderISBN978–0–230–22786–6(hardback) 978–0–230–22787–3(paperback) (outsideNorthAmericaonly) Youcanreceivefuturetitlesinthisseriesastheyarepublishedbyplacinga standingorder.Pleasecontactyourbookselleror,incaseofdifficulty,writeto usattheaddressbelowwithyournameandaddress,thetitleoftheseriesand theISBNquotedabove. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS,England Technology and Identity in Young Adult Fiction The Posthuman Subject Victoria Flanagan ©VictoriaFlanagan2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-36205-6 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedherrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthis workinaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2014by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-47252-9 ISBN 978-1-137-36206-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137362063 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in–PublicationData Flanagan,Victoria,1976– Technologyandidentityinyoungadultfiction:theposthumansubject/ VictoriaFlanagan. pages cm.—(Criticalapproachestochildren’sliterature) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-1-349-47252-9 1. Youngadultfiction—Historyandcriticism. 2. Technologyinliterature. 3. Identity(Psychology)inliterature. 4. Selfinliterature. I. Title. PN3443.F572014 809.3(cid:2)00835—dc23 2014023270 To Sky, whose unbridled enthusiasm for technology inspired much of this book This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 1 PosthumanisminYoungAdultFiction 11 2 NarratingPosthumanSubjectivity 39 3 DigitalCitizenshipinthePosthumanEra 70 4 ReworkingtheFemaleSubject:TechnologyandtheBody 100 5 SurveillanceSocieties:PrivacyandPowerinYAFiction 128 6 SubjectivityinCyberspace:Technorealismandthe MergingofVirtualandMaterialSelves 155 Conclusion 186 Bibliography 192 Index 201 vii Acknowledgements The preliminary research for this project was undertaken in 2009 whenIwasawardedaresearchfellowshipattheInternationalYouth Library in Munich, Germany. Apart from being an incredibly beau- tiful place, the library is filled with wonderful and passionate staff who each made my time in Munich – and the research process – immensely enjoyable. Claudia Soeffner and the indefatigable Petra Woerschingdeserveaspecialmentionhere,astheyhavebothhelped toturnmymanyexperiencesatthelibraryintospecialmemories. IamalsoextremelygratefultoProfessorJohnStephens,whopro- videdsharp,insightfulfeedbackoneachchapterandpromptedmeto reassesssomeofmyoriginalideas.Althoughhehasofficiallyretired from academia, his mind is as nimble as ever – and this book has benefitedgreatlyfromhiseditorialandconceptualguidance. TheAustralianResearchCouncilgenerouslyprovidedthefundsfor thisresearch,forwhichIamverythankful.Abigthankyoumustbe extendedtoDrChristineBomanandPeterMcCarthyinthiscontext, astheyplayedanimportantroleinhelpingmetoidentifythescope and aims of this project when I was at that initial planning stage of applyingforresearchfunding. Last, but not least, I extend my heartfelt thanks to my boys, Riku andSky.Botharetechnophiles(eventhree-year-oldSky)andremind me on a daily basis that children need to read books that celebrate, ratherthandemonise,technology. viii Introduction Posthumanism uses technoscience as the impetus for a radical revaluationofhumansubjectivity,exploringthemanywaysinwhich technological innovations such as virtual reality have changed our understanding of what it means to be human in the modern era. Yet the concept of the “posthuman” is often perceived as a threat tothehumanities,thoseacademicdisciplinesdedicatedtothestudy of human nature and culture. If we consider how we arrived in the era of the posthuman, we might reflect on some of the questions thatareposedbyGeoffreyHarpham–“Didwedothistoourselves, or was it done to us?” (2012: 101) – and whether the posthuman referstoanewformofthehumanconditionor,alternatively,resitu- atestheboundariesofanexistingcategory.Therearetwobasicfears, accordingtoHarpham,thatunderliesuchlinesofinquiry: first, that the human has been compromised even as it has been enhanced by technology, which has altered our social, intel- lectual, and even our physical lives; and second, that human beings are losing or have lost the attributes of individuality and autonomy as they become more tightly woven into distributed cognitivenetworksthatincludeanindifferentmixofpersonsand computers. (2012:101–2) Prior to the mid-2000s, literature produced for children and ado- lescents that has thematically considered the effects of technology on human beings and society has been animated by these two fears 1
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