Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism

Beyond the Golden Rule

By: Elana Gomel

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Hardcover | 24 June 2014 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
246 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.59 x 14.61 x 1.91

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This book brings together two important cultural trends: alien encounters and posthumanism. By considering scenarios of encounters with intelligent aliens in literary science fiction, Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism argues that the ethics of empathy and politics of human rights are insufficient to meet the challenges of our posthuman age. Rather, posthumanism requires an ethics of transformation, in which the encounter with the Other remakes the human subject. The book offers a typology of alien encounters and addresses a wide range of texts. Its scope includes, but is not limited to, classic novels of alien encounter by H.G. Wells and Robert Heinlein; recent blockbusters by Greg Bear, Octavia Butler and Sheri Tepper; and experimental science fiction by Peter Watts and Housuke Nojiri. It also contains an extensive discussion of Soviet science fiction and of the novels of Stanislaw Lem, bringing important aspects of global posthumanist culture to the attention of the Anglo-American reader.

Industry Reviews

"Provocative, forcefully written, and methodical in approach, Gomel's study of alien encounters is both an important work of science fiction criticism and a timely intervention in cultural theory." Patrick Parrinder, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Reading, UK

"As [Gomel] indicates, 'It is the greatness of good science fiction that it makes one think rather than emote and that it respects the reader's capacity to buckle the book's argument and to come up with alternatives of his/her own' (ix). The greatness of

Gomel's book is that it does the same, inviting us to leave the shackles of our vainglorious humanism behind. The book belongs on the shelf of universities and colleges that have programs focusing on either SF or ethics and would be quite at home in public libraries that are building a collection of SF critical texts." Kevin Pinkham, SFRA Review

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