Narrating Posthuman Subjectivity

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is the narrative representation of posthuman consciousness and subjectivity — which seems a fitting place to begin a discussion about children’s literature and technology, as each of the following chapters will also touch upon the extent to which the portrayal of technologically mediated identity differs from more conventional (that is, humanist nuanced) ideological paradigms. One of the most apparent similarities between the novels discussed throughout this book lies in the conceptual link that many of them create between femininity and posthumanism. These narratives offer representations of feminine identity that subvert or challenge humanist assumptions about subjectivity, particularly in the sense that these novels present individual identity as embodied, pluralistic and fragmented — for example, The Adoration of Jenna Fox, “Anda’s Game”, Uglies and The Hunger Games (all of which are discussed in more detail in Chapter 4, which examines the intersection of gender and posthuman ideology in its discussion of the feminine posthuman subject). My purpose here, however, is to concentrate more broadly on the subject of posthuman consciousness: to analyse how the representation of posthuman thought, perception and awareness might diverge from more conventional humanist models of narration and point of view.