Posthumanism, Biopolitics, and the Anthropocene in Science Fiction: A Comparative Perspective

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This course explores the intersection between biopolitics, posthumanism, and technology in Chinese science fiction works. The class will rethink the humanist concept of the human and life amid the blurring human-machine boundaries under the a technolized and digital regime of biopolitics. Reading major theoretical texts and science fiction literature/film, students will tackle the cyborgization of human and nonhuman life, the ethical and political consequence of techno posthumanism, and tensions between culture and nature. We read chapters from Rossi Bradotti's Posthman, and from the anthology After the Human by Sherryl Vint and from Posthumanism: A Critical Analysis by Stefan Herbrechter. Primary texts include Chen Qiufan's Waste Tide and other posthuman and biopolitical stories, Hao Jingfang's Eternal Hospital and Folding Beijing, Wang Jinkang's Reincarnated Giant, Han Song's Hospital, and Liu Cixins' Taking Care of Humanity; Taking Care of God.