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Category Archives: biopolitics
Epigenetics and Blaming Mothers: Working with Dr. Amy Non
Before this semester began, I harbored a secret interest in genetics and environmental heredity, an interest that I kept hidden from my work in English because it seemed so disconnected. But this has rapidly been changing. During this semester I have h… Continue reading
Posted in biopolitics
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When You Stare Into the Uncanny Valley, the Uncanny Valley Also Stares Into You: Posthuman Narratives in The Windup Girl
Like my dear colleague A.M. Lehr below, I also couldn’t help but make the comparison between Paolo Bacigaluipi’s The Windup Girl and E.T.A. Hoffman’s The Sandman… Possibly because of the “uncanny” resemblance in the … Continue reading
Posted in biopolitics, eta hoffman, Gender studies, jacques offenbach, narrative, Novelists, Paolo Bacigalupi, post-human, Science Fiction, technoscience, the sandman, The Windup Girl, uncanny, uncanny valley
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On Humanized Trauma in Oryx and Crake, or, “Why the Individual Narrative Is So Important”
***This post contains spoilers! If you are reading this, and you haven’t finished Oryx and Crake, step away from the computer and get back to it!*** I read Oryx and Crake primarily as a novel of trauma, extending past the genocidal crescendo of… Continue reading
Posted in Atwood, biomedicine, biopolitics, disillusion, dystopia, ethics, gender, meaning-making, narrative, narrative structure, Novelists, Oryx and Crake, Science Fiction, subjectivity
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The Voice in His Head
One of the recurring features of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake is the voice that keeps speaking in Snowman’s head, a voice whose tone is by turns condescending, instructional, pious, courageous, scolding, childish, and much else. The voice speak… Continue reading
Posted in Atwood, Margaret, biopolitics, Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer, language, Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, Science Fiction, voice
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Suicide and the Sovereignty of the Individual in The Island of Doctor Moreau
In the interest of fostering some continuity between this week’s reading and our pending discussion of H.G. Wells, I am interested in Foucault’s discussion of suicide as a way in which the individual might “usurp the power of death” (139). In T… Continue reading
Posted in biopolitics, Foucault, Galton, H.G. Wells, nineteenth century, Science Fiction, sovereignty, suicide, The Island of Dr. Moreau
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WPATH & The Fantasy of a Transgender “Type”
“As an international interdisciplinary, professional organization, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) will work to further the understanding and treatment of gender identity disorders by professionals in medicine, psych… Continue reading
Posted in biopolitics, Foucault, Galton, gender, Gender studies, History of Sexuality, transgender, WPATH
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De-Sensitizing the Operating Room: Normalizing the “Unnatural” in The Island of Dr. Moreau
I say I became habituated to the Beast People, that a thousand things that had seemed unnatural and repulsive speedily became natural and ordinary to me. (The Island of Dr. Moreau, End of Chapter 15) I used to consider myself a very squeamish person. T… Continue reading
Posted in "victorian literature, 19th Century, 20th Century, biomedicine, biopolitics, disillusion, dystopia, ethics, Ethics of science, H.G. Wells, history of science, role of scientists, Science Fiction, technology, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Visuality
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