{"product_id":"biopunk-dystopias-genetic-engineering-society-and-science-fiction-9781781383766","title":"Biopunk Dystopias: Genetic Engineering, Society","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003ci\u003eBiopunk  Dystopias\u003c\/i\u003e contends that we find ourselves at a historical nexus, defined by  the rise of biology as the driving force of scientific progress, a strongly  grown mainstream attention given to genetic engineering in the wake of the  Human Genome Project (1990-2003), the changing sociological view of a liquid  modern society, and shifting discourses on the posthuman, including a critical  posthumanism that decenters the privileged subject of humanism. The book argues  that this historical nexus produces a specific cultural formation in the form  of \"biopunk\", a subgenre evolved from the cyberpunk of the 1980s. The  analysis deals with dystopian science fiction artifacts of different media from  the year 2000 onwards that project a posthuman intervention into contemporary  socio-political discourse based in liquid modernity in the cultural formation  of biopunk. Biopunk makes use of current posthumanist conceptions in order to  criticize contemporary reality as already dystopian, warning that a future will  only get worse, and that society needs to reverse its path, or else destroy all  life on this planet. As Rosi Braidotti argues, \"there is a posthuman  agreement that contemporary science and biotechnologies affect the very fibre  and structure of the living and have altered dramatically our understanding of  what counts as the basic frame of reference for the human today\". The  proposed book analyzes this alteration as directors, creators, authors, and  artists from the field of science fiction extrapolate it from current trends.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'An important intervention into the ways sf studies is done - it is no longer even remotely credible to treat sf as just a literary genre - and the strengths of this book makes that argument more effectively than any polemic about the transmediality of sf.' \u003cbr\u003eMark Bould, University of the West of England\u003cbr\u003e'A comprehensive,  meticulously researched, and wide-ranging intervention in the union between  genetic discourse and contemporary science fiction that has the  potential to be very influential in the field.' \u003cbr\u003eProfessor Gerry Canavan, Marquette University\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e‘Biopunk Dystopias \u003c\/i\u003erepresents a substantial contribution to the field and marks Lars Schmeink as a formidable researcher. With the commercialisation of the life sciences continuing apace, the insights he offers in this book will only become more pertinent over the coming years. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the mutated future rushing straight for us.’ \u003cbr\u003eJack Fennell, \u003ci\u003eFantastika\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Lars Schmeink’s Biopunk Dystopias provides a useful, and mostly persuasive, account of the visions of bioengineering that have come to populate post-2000 science fiction. All of the chapters are dense and rich with insights.'\u003cbr\u003eSteven Shaviro, \u003ci\u003eJournal for the Fantastik in the Arts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Each discussion engages thoroughly with relevant scholarship, from biopolitics to game studies to creature films and the horror genre. Together, they make a convincing case that biological themes are prominent in contemporary sf across media, appearing in works that are marked by a critically dystopian sensibility.'\u003cbr\u003eRebecca Wilbanks, \u003ci\u003eScience Fiction Studies Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Schmeink brings together perspectives of various disciplines and theoretical approaches, including sociology, human-animal studies, monster studies and game studies, which not only contributes to gaining insight in his analysis, but also the scientific discourse for a variety other fields opens. The discursive link that Schmeink develops between scientific progress, economic interests, social change and fiction as an instrument of cultural intervention represents the scientific and social added value of \u003ci\u003eBiopunk Dystopias\u003c\/i\u003e.' (Translated from German) \u003cbr\u003eMadeline Becker, \u003ci\u003eMEDIENwissenschaft\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReviews ‘\u003ci\u003eBiopunk Dystopias\u003c\/i\u003e is a strong contribution to twenty-first-century science fiction studies and studies of dystopian fiction, but also will interest critics invested in studies of literary and filmic representations of late capitalism, biopower, and necropolitics.’\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Year’s Work in English Studies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgements  1. Introduction  2. Dystopia, Science Fiction, Posthumanism, and Liquid Modernity  3. The Anthropocene, the Posthuman, and the Animal  4. Science, Family, and the Monstrous Progeny  5. Individuality, Choice, and Genetic Manipulation  6. The Utopian, the Dystopian, and the Heroic Deeds of One  7. 9\/11 and the Wasted Lives of Posthuman Zombies  8. Conclusion  Works Cited  Index","brand":"Liverpool University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51042205139287,"sku":"9781781383766","price":48.22,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781781383766.jpg?v=1750953435","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/biopunk-dystopias-genetic-engineering-society-and-science-fiction-9781781383766","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}