Which of the possible futures might be a good future, and how do we know? Stephanie Bender looks at contemporary films and novels to address major ethical challenges of the future: the ecological catastrophe, digitalisation and biotechnology. She proposes that fiction and its modes of aesthetic simulation and emotional engagement offer a different way of knowing and judging possible futures. From a critical posthumanist angle, she discusses works ranging from Don DeLillo's Zero K (2017) and Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy (2003-2013) to Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 as well as Avatar (2009), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017) among many others.
Price: $60.00
Pages: 318
Publisher: transcript publishing
Imprint: transcript publishing
Publication Date:
12 September 2023
Trim Size: 8.86 X 5.83 in
ISBN: 9783837668209
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies
Stephanie Bender gained her doctorate in English literary and cultural studies, and teaches courses at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. She turns theory into practice on the fields of Community Supported Agriculture as the degrowth future of sustainable food production.
Frontmatter 1
Contents 7
Acknowledgements 11
1 Introduction 13
2 Ethics for the Future through Fiction 35
3 Future World Ecologies: Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 (2017) and James Cameron's Avatar (2009) 65
4 Transhumanist Futures: Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014) and Wally Pfister's Transcendence (2014) 101
5 Futuristic Digital Neoliberalism: Spike Jonze's Her (2013) and Dave Eggers's The Circle (2013) 133
6 Biopolitics of the Future: Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2006) and Don DeLillo's Zero K (2016) 169
7 More than Human?: Threats of AI in Dennis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and Alex Garland's Ex_Machina (2014) 209
8 Posthumanist Futures: Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy (2003, 2006, 2013) and Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl (2009) 241
9 Contemporary Imaginaries of the Future 281
Works Cited 295
