{"product_id":"after-human-a-critical-history-of-the-human-in-science-fiction-from-shelley-to-le-guin-9781800348165","title":"After Human: A Critical History of the Human in","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards (Non-Fiction) 2022\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for the Locus Science Fiction Foundation Non-Fiction Award 2022\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSF has long been understood as a literature of radical potential, capable of imagining entirely new worlds and ways of being. Yet SF has been slow to embrace posthumanist ideas about the human subject. The human of the SF tradition is instead a liminal being, caught somewhere between the transcendent ‘Man’ of classical humanism and the subversive ‘cyborg’ of posthumanist thought.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eThis study offers a critical history of the 'human' in SF. By examining a range of SF works from 1818 to the 1970s, it seeks to answer some key questions: What role does technology play in defining what it means to be—or not to be—human? How do these writers understand the relationship between humanity and the rest of nature? And how can we use SF to re-examine our ethical position towards the non-human world and move to more egalitarian understandings of the human subject?\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'This wide-ranging and original study convincingly shows how science fiction has (almost) always been posthuman. Thomas Connolly’s critical and cultural history of “the human” in Anglo-American sf ranges from the nineteenth century through the 1970s, constructing an expansive pre-history of the posthuman before the cyberpunk explosion of the 1980s. This is an exciting new story about the history of science fiction.'\u003cbr\u003e Veronica Hollinger, co-editor of \u003ci\u003eScience Fiction Studies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This monograph gives a valuable starting point for considering the developments of human figures in science fiction before posthumanism had been articulated and it contributes productively to current conversations about reading such texts retroactively as engagements with the posthuman and posthumanism.\"\u003cbr\u003eAnna McFarlane, \u003ci\u003eScience Fiction Studies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e'For those scholars interested to treat posthumanism not as a given of the 21st century, but as a development of the humanism and anti-humanism that came before, Connolly’s book is a valuable resource explaining the lines of thought in sf that have led up to, for example, the cyberpunk multiplication of posthumanism. \u003ci\u003eAfter Human\u003c\/i\u003e will help ground current work in contemporary posthumanist criticism by providing a historical perspective.' Lars Schmeink, \u003cb\u003eSFRA Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: 'Beyond the common range of men': H.G. Wells, the OncoMouse, and the Human in Anglo-American SF\u003cbr\u003e1. Worlds Lost and Gained: Evolution, Primitivism, and the Pre-Human in Arthur Conan Doyle's \u003ci\u003eThe Lost World \u003c\/i\u003eand Jack London's \u003ci\u003eThe Iron Heel\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e2. Soma and Skylarks: Technocracy, Agency and the Trans-Human in Aldous Huxley's \u003ci\u003eBrave New World \u003c\/i\u003eand E.E. 'Doc' Smith's \u003ci\u003eSkylark \u003c\/i\u003eSeries\u003cbr\u003e3. Homo Gestalt: Atomics, Empire, and the Supra-Human in Isaac Asimov's \u003ci\u003eFoundation \u003c\/i\u003eand Arthur C. Clarke's \u003ci\u003eThe City and the Stars\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e4. Disaster and Redemption: Utopia, Nature, and the Post-Human in J.G. Ballard's \u003ci\u003eThe Crystal World \u003c\/i\u003eand Ursula K. Le Guin's \u003ci\u003eThe Dispossessed\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eConclusion: Bio\/Techno\/Homo: The Future of the Human in SF\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Liverpool University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51360134431063,"sku":"9781800348165","price":109.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781800348165.jpg?v=1754126769","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/after-human-a-critical-history-of-the-human-in-science-fiction-from-shelley-to-le-guin-9781800348165","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}