Posthumanism and the Science Fiction of Philip K. Dick Has the Future he Prophesied Arrived?

Authors

  • Malika BELKHARCHOUCHE Department of Letters and English Language, Frères Mentouri University Constantine 1, Algeria

Keywords:

Posthumanism, Philip K. Dick, Science Fiction, Technology, Virtual Reality, Do Androids Dream, Ubik

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the human condition transmuted by science and technology as depicted in the works of the American science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick and its relevance to the contemporary state of humanity and the concept of posthumanism. The paper explores first the notion of posthumanism as a cultural and philosophical framework for the 21st century that describes the advent of a new epoch of transformed humanity by the excessive dependence on technology. Then Philip K. Dick, whose most acclaimed works were written during the 1960s and 1970s, is introduced as the visionary writer who had an unusual discernment of the future of the world and the cost humans have paid for the unlimited uses of technology in every area of human life and activity. Through the analysis of two of his major novels, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ubik, I intend to answer the pertinent question as to whether the state of humanity Philip Dick portrays in his works corresponds with the reality of today’s world and the notion of posthumanity; in other words, has the future of humanity Philip Dick predicted in his fiction arrived?  

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Althusser, Louis. Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, trans. Ben Brewster. Monthly Review Press, 2001.

Badmington, Neil. “Theorizing Posthumanism.” Cultural Critique, No. 53, Winter, 2003, pp. 10-27.

Beard, Steve. Logic Bomb: Transmissions from the Edge of Style Culture. New York: Serpent's Tail, 1998.

Best, Steven and Douglas Kellner. “The Apocalyptic Vision of Philip K. Dick.” Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies, Volume 3 Number 2, 2003: 186-202. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708603003002005

Braidotti, Rosi and Paul Gilroy, eds. Conflicting Humanities. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.

Braidotti, Rosi. “Posthuman Critical Theory.” Journal of Posthuman Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2017: 9-25.

Campbell, Norah, Aidan O’Driscoll and Michael Saren “The Posthuman: the End and the beginning of the human.” Journal of Consumer Behaviour. 9:2010: 86–101. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.306

Descartes, René. “Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and Seeking the Truth in the Sciences.” In René Descartes. Selected Philosophical Writings, ed. and trans. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Murdoch. Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Derrida, Jacques. “Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Philosophy.” Trans. John P. Leavey Jr. Oxford Literary Review, volume 6, no. 2, 1984: 3-37.

-------------------. “The Ends of Man.” Margins of Philosophy, trans. Alan Bass. Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1982: 109-36.

Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? NY: Ballantine Books, 1968.

---------------- . Ubik. Vintage Books, 1991.

---------------- . “How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later.” In The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings. Ed. Lawrence Sutin. Vintage Books, 1995.

---------------- . “The Android and the Human.” In The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings. Ed. Lawrence Sutin. Vintage Books, 1995.

Dunst, Alexander. “Introduction: Third Reality – On the Persistence of Philip K. Dick.” In The World According to Philip K. Dick, Eds. Alexander Dunst and Stefan Schlensag. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

Enns, Anthony. “Media, Drugs, and Schizophrenia in the Works of Philip K. Dick.” Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1, Mar., 2006: 68-88.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/4241409.

Fitting, Peter. “Reality as Ideological Construct: A Reading of Five Novels by Philip K. Dick.” Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 10, No. 2, Jul., 1983: 219-36. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4239550

Freedman, Carl. “Towards a Theory of Paranoia: The Science Fiction of Philip K. Dick.” Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1, Mar., 1984: 15-24. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4239584

Fukuyama, Francis. Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2002.

Hayles, N. Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. The University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Jameson, Frederic. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. Verso, 2005.

-------------------. Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Duke University Press, 1991.

Jansen, Yolande, Jasmijn Leeuwenkamp, and Leire Urricelqui. “Posthumanism and the ‘posterizing impulse’.” Online publication 17 July 2021. manchesteropenhive.com. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526148179.00020

Lem, Stanislaw and Robert Abernathy. “Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans.” Translated by Robert Abernathy. Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, Mar., 1975: 54-67. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4238911

Marx, Karl. “A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy” (1859). In Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy, ed. Lewis S. Feuer. Anchor, 1959.

-------------. Capital. Vol. I. Trans. Ben Fowkes. International Publishers, 1979.

Meyers, John A. “A Letter From the Publisher.” Time. Vol. 121, No. 1, January 3, 1983. https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,953629,00.html

Milburn, Colin. “Posthumanism.” The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction. Ed. Rob Latham. 2014. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199838844.013.0041

Moravec, Hans. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence. Harvard University Press, 1988.

Palmer, Christopher. Philip K. Dick: Exhilaration and Terror of the Postmodern. Liverpool University Press, 2003.

Pordzik, Ralph. “The Posthuman Future of Man: Anthropocentrism and the Other of Technology in Anglo-American Science Fiction.” Utopian Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1, 2012: 142-161. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/utopianstudies.23.1.0142.

Ramage, Magnus and Karen Shipp. Systems Thinkers. Springer, 2009.

Robins, Kevin. "Cyberspace and the World We Live In." In Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/ Cyberpunk: Cultures of Technological Embodiment, eds. Mike Featherstone and Roger Burrows. SAGE, 1995. 135-55.

Rossi, Umberto. The Twisted Worlds of Philip K. Dick: A Reading of Twenty Ontologically Uncertain Novels. McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, 2011.

Simon, Bart. “Introduction: Toward a Critique of Posthuman Futures.” Cultural Critique. Volume 53, No. 1, December 2003: 1–9. doi:10.1353/cul.2003.0028.

Venn, Couze. “The Enlightenment.” Theory, Culture and Society. Vol. 23, Issue 2–3, May 2006: 477–498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276406062701

Vinci, Tony M. “Posthuman Wounds: Trauma, Non-Anthropocentric Vulnerability, and the Human/Android/Animal Dynamic in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Vol. 47, No. 2, Fall 2014: 91-112. https://doi.org/10.1353/mml.2014.0004.

Wallace, Jeff. “Literature and Posthumanism.” Literature Compass. 7/8, 2010: 692–701. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2010.00723.x

Yaszek, Lisa and Jason W. Ellis “Science Fiction.” The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Posthuman. Eds. Bruce Clarke and Manuela Rossini. Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Downloads

Published

2023-06-30

How to Cite

BELKHARCHOUCHE, M. (2023). Posthumanism and the Science Fiction of Philip K. Dick Has the Future he Prophesied Arrived?. Journal of Human Sciences , 34(2), 103–123. Retrieved from https://revue.umc.edu.dz/h/article/view/4040

Similar Articles

<< < 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.