Artificial Enhancement and the Posthuman Condition in Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent
cytuj
pobierz pliki
RIS BIB ENDNOTEChoose format
RIS BIB ENDNOTEArtificial Enhancement and the Posthuman Condition in Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent
Publication date: 07.03.2014
Yearbook of Conrad Studies, 2013, Vol. VIII, pp. 133-138
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843941YC.13.008.1520Authors
Artificial Enhancement and the Posthuman Condition in Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent
This essay examines the ‘posthuman condition’ and its critical relevance to Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent (1907). It will be shown that oppressive examples of constitution-altering technologies find complex and recurrent depiction throughout the novel, often dismantling and redefining the physiques of their respective hosts. Most centrally however, it will be argued that Conrad criticises this notion of the posthuman condition through menacing depictions of ‘the Professor’, crucially emphasising the instability and endangerment potentially associated with the technologically-enhanced constitution. To this end, brief descriptions of The Secret Agent and contemporary conceptions of the posthuman condition will be provided. Thereafter, I shall explore the novel’s disquieting depictions of prosthetic technology and their detrimental effects upon the organic constitution, before then interrogating Conrad’s treatment of the posthuman condition and the devastation apparently inherent to this state of mechanical alteration. Finally, the novel’s ultimate denunciation of the posthuman condition will be considered, with particular reference to the death of Stevie and the numerous depictions of his fragmented body.
Information: Yearbook of Conrad Studies, 2013, Vol. VIII, pp. 133-138
Article type: Original article
The University of York, Heslington York Y010 5DD
Published at: 07.03.2014
Article status: Open
Licence: None
Percentage share of authors:
Article corrections:
-Publication languages:
EnglishView count: 2467
Number of downloads: 1984