A Posthuman Vision: Transhuman Characters Between Humans and Posthumans from Samuel Beckett’s Endgame
0
조회
0
다운로드
3
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
The vision of transhumans and posthumans in the 21st century is a powerful paradigm. The main purpose of this paper is, at the time when our human species are trying to evolve ourselves, 1) to define a transhuman prior to a coming posthuman, based on Nick Bostrom, Francis Fukuama and several futurists’ writings, 2) to analyze the characters in Samuel Beckett’s absurd play Endgame from transhumanist perspective, 3) and to think together about how to find appropriate alternatives by presenting the transhuman problems from the point of view of literature and sociology in humanistic and practical level. The main contents of the paper consists of four parts. First, it shows that transhumanization of the present human being is proceeding through Hamm corresponding to the body of transhuman as a cyborg and the Clov playing a role as the prosthesis connected with Hamm’s body. Next, from Nagg and Nell, Hamm’s parents and old people with extended lives, it suggests that the development of genetic engineering can lead to the social and cultural problems that elderly people with extended lifespan can arise when they rely on transhumans without productivity and any work. Third, it questions whether it is justified that normal people use psychotropic drugs not for treatments but for control and enhancement of their emotions like Hamm that continues to seek a drug. Last, it presents a postmhuman vision of evolving from a human via a transhuman to a posthuman through Hamm standing on the fault line between a human and a nonhuman, and between a human and a posthuman.
Abstract
The vision of transhumans and posthumans in the 21st century is a powerful paradigm. The main purpose of this paper is, at the time when our human species are trying to evolve ourselves, 1) to define a transhuman prior to a coming posthuman, based on Nick Bostrom, Francis Fukuama and several futurists’ writings, 2) to analyze the characters in Samuel Beckett’s absurd play Endgame from transhumanist perspective, 3) and to think together about how to find appropriate alternatives by presenting the transhuman problems from the point of view of literature and sociology in humanistic and practical level. The main contents of the paper consists of four parts. First, it shows that transhumanization of the present human being is proceeding through Hamm corresponding to the body of transhuman as a cyborg and the Clov playing a role as the prosthesis connected with Hamm’s body. Next, from Nagg and Nell, Hamm’s parents and old people with extended lives, it suggests that the development of genetic engineering can lead to the social and cultural problems that elderly people with extended lifespan can arise when they rely on transhumans without productivity and any work. Third, it questions whether it is justified that normal people use psychotropic drugs not for treatments but for control and enhancement of their emotions like Hamm that continues to seek a drug. Last, it presents a postmhuman vision of evolving from a human via a transhuman to a posthuman through Hamm standing on the fault line between a human and a nonhuman, and between a human and a posthuman.
참고문헌 (41)
- Adorno, Theodor W., "Trying to Understand Endgame", New German Critique, 26, pp.119~150 (1982)
- al-Nabrawi, Tawfeq M., "The Philosophy of Beckett's Play Endgame: Its Vision and Apocalyptic Sides" (2015), Middle East U
- Bair, Deirdre, "Samuel Beckett: A Biography" (1990), Simon & Schuster
- Beckett, Samuel, "Endgame: A Play" (1958), Grove
- Birnbacher, Dieter, "Naturalness: Is the “Natural” Preferable to the “Artificial”?" (2014), UPA
- Blackford, Russell, "Science Fiction and the Moral Imagination: Visions, Minds, Ethics" (2017), Springer
- "WHAT IS TRANSHUMANISM?" (2001)[URL]
- Buning, Marius, "BECKETT IN THE 1990S" (1993), Brill Rodopi
- Clark, Andy, "Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence" (2004), Oxford UP
- Clements, Benedict J., "Equitable and Sustainable Pensions: Challenges and Experience" (2014), INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
- Cordeiro, Jose Luis, "The Boundaries of the Human: From Humanism to Transhumanism", World Future Review, 6, pp.231~239 (2014)
- Descartes, Rene, "The Philosophical Writings of Descartes: Volume 3, The Correspondence" (1984), Cambridge UP
- Deneen, Patrick J., "Science, Virtue, and the Future of Humanity: The science of Politics and the Conquest of Nature", pp.57~68 (2016), Lexington Books
- Dresner, Simon, "The Principles of Sustainability" (2008), Routledge
- Dinello, Daniel, "Technophobia!: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology" (2006), U of Texas P
- Eisele, Thomas, "The Apocalypse of Beckett's ‘Endgame’", Cross Currents, 26(1), pp.11~32 (1976)
- Foucault, Michel, "The Order of Things: An Archeology of the Human Sciences" (2001), Routledge
- Fukuyama, Francis, "Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the biotechnology revolution" (2002), Farrar Straus and Giroux
- 황훈성, "Samuel Beckett’s Endgame: A Postmodern Allegory on the Relationship between Man and Nature", 영어영문학, 63(1), pp.129~146 (2017), 한국영어영문학회[DOI]
- Hwang, Hoon-sung, "Recent Trends in British and American Studies on Beckett’s Dramas", Colloque 2006 de l'ACEF, 10, pp.27~36 (2006)
- 고강일, "A Critique of Modern Science and Technology: Baconian Utopia and New Atlantis", 영어권문화연구, 11(1), pp.113~138 (2018), 영어권문화연구소[DOI]
- Lærke, Mogens, "Steno and the Philosophers" (2018), BRILL
- Luce, Jacquelyne, "Narrating Converging Technologies", NEUE KONZEPTE. Okologisches Wirtschaften, 4, pp.35~38 (2009)
- Maude, Ulrika., "Beckett and Animals: Pavlov’s and Other Animals in Samuel Beckett", pp.82~93 (2013), Cambridge UP
- McLuhan, Marshall, "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man" (1994), The MIT
- Minoli, Daniel., "A Networking Approach to Grid Computing" (2004), Wiley-Interscience
- Naumann, Jens, "Search for Paradise: A Patient's Account of the Artificial Vision Experiment" (2012), Xlibris
- Olsen, Brad, "Modern Esoteric: Beyond Our Senses" (2014), CCC
- Paul, Knoepfler, "Gmo Sapiens: The Life-changing Science Of Designer Babies" (2015), World Scientific
- Regan, Tom., "The Case for Animal Rights" (2004), U of California P
- Restivo, Giuseppina, "Samuel Beckett: Endlessness in the Year 2000: Melencholias and Scientific Ironies in Endgame: Beckett, Walther, Durer, Musil", pp.103~111 (2002), Brill Rodopi
- Ross, Stephen David, "Gift of Truth, The: Gathering the Good" (1997), State U of New York P
- Schmaltz, Tad M., "Early Modern Cartesianisms: Dutch and French Constructions" (2016), Oxford UP
- Shepherd-Barr, Kirsten E., "Theatre and Evolution from Ibsen to Beckett" (2015), Columbia UP
- Sidney, Homan., "Beckett's Theaters: Interpretations for Performance" (1984), Associated UP
- Stanley, Matthew, "Huxley's Church and Maxwell's Demon: From Theistic Science to Naturalistic Science" (2014), U of Chicago P
- Tester, Keith, "The Inhuman Condition" (1995), Routledge
- Thompson, Michael J., "Georg Lukacs Reconsidered: Critical Essays in Politics, Philosophy and Aesthetics" (2011), Bloomsbury Academic
- Wolfe, Cary, "What is Posthumanism?" (2009), U Of Minnesota P
- Youngquist, Paul, "Monstrosities: Bodies and British Romanticism" (2003), U Of Minnesota P