1,720,954 research outputs found
The technobody : posthumanism as a utopian/dystopian enclave in cyberpunk and postcyberpunk science fiction
Get PDFAbstract: This dissertation intends to illustrate the ways in which postcyberpunk – the often ignored offshoot of the short-lived science fiction (SF) subgenre, cyberpunk – revises the technophobic preoccupations that usually characterise cyberpunk’s depictions of the posthuman. Posthumanism – understood here as a merging of biology and technology to a point where the human becomes something other than human – is frequently envisioned by cyberpunk as a dystopian condition in which the human/machine merger is a negative transformation that does irreparable harm to the human subject. I argue that postcyberpunk, on the other hand, depicts posthumanism as a potentially positive transformation that offers humanity an opportunity to redesign and reimagine itself. To this end I rely on Fredric Jameson’s concept of the utopian enclave, which he defines in Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (2007), as a space wherein both utopian and dystopian fantasies can take shape. I posit that posthumanism is one such an enclave, in demonstration of which I offer a reading of William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) – considered by a number of scholars to be the seminal cyberpunk novel – comparing it to Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 postcyberpunk animated film Kôkaku kidôtai (Ghost in the Shell). In so doing I illustrate how each text offers differing views on posthumanism, as envisioned in the figure of the cyborg, as well as in disembodied cyberspace consciousnesses, as a transformation that either threatens humanity, as in Neuromancer, or, as in Ghost in the Shell, one that offers exciting new possibilities for human existence.M.A. (English
Decentring the individual Subject: the perpetual recycling of the narrating “I” in David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten
Get PDFAbstract: British author David Mitchell’s debut novel Ghostwritten, published in 1999, has been lauded for its innovative nine-part structure, in which each chapter is presented as a first-person narrative that involves, each time, a different narrator with a different story. Mitchell himself describes this arrangement as a way to “locate meaning in randomness [...] Each chapter offers a different reason why its events unfold as they do” (in Begley 2010: 5). Such a postmodern concern with randomness is evident when the ostensible self-sufficiency of the individual account is undermined by the arbitrary, often mysterious (re)appearance of one or the other narrator as character in another’s story. Interestingly, these surprise appearances, of what could be called the ‘experiencing other’, work to undermine the centrality of the narrator’s story – of what could be called the ‘master narrative’. This destabilisation is compounded in characteristic postmodern fashion by the continual displacement of the narrating ‘I’ from one chapter to the next. Thus, while the ‘I’ remains – or seems to remain – a constant throughout, the individual subject is ceaselessly recycled as the experiencing other in different guises; it is a process that apparently denies the formation of an individual identity, thus ratifying the postmodern anxiety about the end of individuality. However, as I argue in this paper, it is precisely this continual recycling that affords the decentred subject a chance at individuality. In a telling deconstructive gesture, Mitchell’s novel bypasses the transcendental Subject to allow a space in which the plural subject can claim its identity, paradoxically, as a singular entity
Ghostreading : retro-spectral interpretations in the novels of David Mitchell
No full textAbstract : In the course of the past nineteen years or so, the novels of British author David Mitchell have been steadily garnering critical scrutiny, with the focus of scholarly interest ranging from postmodernist narrative forms, the Bildungsroman, and discursive identity, to the Utopian, science fiction, and postcolonialism, among many others. Such diverse approaches hinge on the eclectic use of genre in these works, not only from one novel to the next, but more often than not also within a single text. By thus disrupting genre-compliant writing, these novels can be said to work deconstructively to destabilize conventional modes of reading and interpretation. As a result, the formation of the subject – be this the writer, the protagonist-narrator, and/or the reader – is fitfully traced in the interstices between ever-changing syntagmatic and paradigmatic levels of signification. Hence the figure of this composite subject is always in the process of becoming, never fully formed or fully present. One could speak here of the subject as a spectral shape that haunts the pages of the text, much as the plotlines of Mitchell’s novels are haunted by uncanny encounters, virtual personalities, return appearances, and supernatural. Within this framework, I aim to show in this study how Mitchell’s writing rehearses the vagaries of the reading process. In the process, I focus on the narrative structure of three specific novels – what I would call the inaugural trio consisting of ghostwritten, number9dream, and Cloud Atlas, insofar as they could be seen to lay the groundwork for the ever-expanding, endlessly shifting fictional world of what Mitchell himself thinks of as his “über-novel” (Huff Post Books, 9 June 2015). I pay close attention to certain, possibly less familiar aspects of narrativity, namely the uncanny, intertextuality, and singularity. Using these three schemes, respectively, in my reading of the three inaugural novels, I seek to demonstrate that Mitchell’s narrative innovations revoke our persistent compulsion to identify ‘the’ reader, but without doing away with the person doing the reading. In short, I aim to show how Mitchell’s writing invites what Valentine Cunningham calls “tactful” readings that would secure “the presence, the rights, the needs of the human subject” (2002: 143).Ph.D. (English
Decentring the Individual Subject: The Perpetual Recycling of the Narrating “I” in David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten
No full textBritish author David Mitchell’s debut novel Ghostwritten, published in 1999, has been lauded for its innovative nine-part structure, in which each chapter is presented as a first-person narrative that involves, each time, a different narrator with a different story. Mitchell himself describes this arrangement as a way to “locate meaning in randomness [...] Each chapter offers a different reason why its events unfold as they do” (Begley 2010: 5). Such a postmodern concern with randomness is evident when the ostensible self-sufficiency of the individual account is undermined by the arbitrary, often mysterious (re)appearance of one or the other narrator as character in another’s story. Interestingly, these surprise appearances, of what could be called the “experi-encing other”, work to undermine the centrality of the narrator’s story – of what could be called the “master narrative”. This destabilisation is compounded in characteristic postmodern fashion by the continual displacement of the narrating “I” from one chapter to the next. Thus, while the “I” remains – or seems to remain – a constant throughout, the individual subject is ceaselessly recycled as the experiencing other in different guises; it is a process that apparently denies the formation of an individual identity, thus ratifying the postmodern anxiety about the end of individuality. However, as I argue in this article, it is precisely this continual recycling that affords the decentred subject a chance at individuality. In a telling deconstructive gesture, Mitchell’s novel bypasses the transcendental Subject to allow a space in which the plural subject can claim its identity, paradoxically, as a singular entity.
Opsomming
Die Britse skrywer David Mitchell se debuutroman Ghostwritten, gepubliseer in 1999, word geag vir sy innoverende nege-ledige struktuur, waar elke hoofstuk aangebied word as ’n eerste-persoons vertelling wat elke keer ’n ander verteller met ’n eie storie behels. Mitchell self beskryf hierdie samestelling as ’n poging om sin te vind midde verwarring: “Each chapter offers a different reason why its events unfold as they do” (Begley 2010: 5). So ’n postmoderne belang in ewekansigheid kom na vore wanneer die oënskynlike selfgenoegsaamheid van ieder vertelling ondermyn word deur die arbitrêre, telkens onverklaarbare herverskyning van die een of ander verteller as ’n karakter in ’n ander se verhaal. Beduidend hierin is hoe hierdie onverwagse manifestasies van die “ervarende ander” werk om die sentralitiet van die verteller se storie – overgesetsynde die meesternarratief – te ondermyn. In tipiese postmoderne fatsoen word sulke destabilisering verder verdiep deur die voortdurende verplasing van die vertellende “Ek” van een hoofstuk tot die volgende. Aldus, onderwyl die “Ek” deurgaans konstant blyk te wees, word die individuele subjek onophoudelik hersirkuleer as die “ervarende ander” agter verskillende fasades; hierdie proses ontsê skynbaar die vorming van ’n individuele identiteit om sodoende die postmoderne angstigheid rakende die einde van individualiteit te bekragtig. In hierdie artikel word egter aangevoer dat so ’n aanhoudende hersirkulering eweneens neerkom op ’n herwinningsaksie, waardeur die gedesentraliseerde subjek ’n kans op individualiteit gebied word. In ’n veelsprekende dekonstruktiewe gebaar omseil Mitchell se roman die transendentale Subjek om plek te maak vir die plurale subjek om, paradoksaal, ’n identiteit as enkelvoudige entiteit op te neem
Deconstructing Utopia in Science Fiction: Irony and the Resituation of the Subject in Iain M. Banks\u27s The Player of Games
No full textThis article interrogates the diverse images of the combative participant in the struggle for Zimbabwean independence. The war for independence took close to a century – from 1890 to 1980. The numerical inversion in the dates ironically mirrors the radical transformation in the perceptions of the hero. The article makes a historical survey of the rifts and shifts in the cultural memory and literary configurations of the African armed combatant. It deals with three genealogical periods of conceptualisation: the participant in the First Chimurenga, the guerrilla in the Second Chimurenga, the Ndebele “dissidents” and the “war veterans” in the “Third Chimurenga”. Genocide, xenophobia and massacre, too much, are unspeakable in the discourse of modernity because such crimes against humanity defy description and, as Adorno (1955: 34) submits, are impossible to write after Auschwitz. But to remain silent over the flare of systematised and authorised purging of dissenting chromatic configurations in the Zimbabwean situation is to be complicit in the enactment of both past and current horrors. Dialogue between Zimbabwe and the West, aid and media houses, is charged and polarised. Zimbabwe is sceptical about the purity and altruistic character of the West, global media and humanitarian workers, while the West imagines Foucaldian “biopolitics” (the ability to control populations) has contributed to the implosion in (an)other African state.
Opsomming
Hierdie artikel plaas die uiteenlopende beelde van die vegtende deelnemer in die stryd om Zimbabwiese onafhanklikheid in die kollig. Die oorlog om onafhanklikheid het bykans \u27n eeu geduur – van 1890 tot 1980 – die numeriese omkering in die datums weerspieël op ironiese wyse die radikale transformasie in die persepsies van die held. Die artikel doen \u27n historiese opname van die skeurings en verskuiwings in die kulturele geheue en literêre konfigurasies van die Afrikaan gewapende stryder. Dit handel oor drie genealogiese konseptualiseringstydperke: die deelname aan die Eerste Chimurenga (stryd), die guerrilla in die Tweede Chimurenga, en die Ndebele “afvalliges” en die “oorlogsveteraan” in die Derde Chimurenga. Volksmoord, xenofobie en massamoord is vir baie mense onnoembaar in die moderniteitsgesprek omdat sulke misdade teen die mensdom beskrywing te bowe gaan en, soos Adorno (1955: 34) dit stel, ná Auschwitz dit onmoontlik is om daaroor te skryf. Om egter stil te bly oor die uitbarsting van sistematiese en goedgekeurde suiwering van afvallige chromatiese konfigurasies in die Zimbabwiese situasie is om aandadig te wees aan die uitvoering van sowel vorige as huidige gruweldade. Dialoog tussen Zimbabwe en die Weste, bystand en mediagroepe is gelaai en gepolariseer. Zimbabwe is skepties oor die suiwer bedoelings en altruïstiese karakter van die Weste, globale media en humanitêre werkers, terwyl die Weste hom verbeel dat Foucault se biopolitiek (die vermoë om bevolkings te beheer) tot die inploffing van nog \u27n Afrikastaat bygedra het
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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