Have we become Posthuman?

Following on from some of the points raised at the last seminar on Post-postmodernism we are moving on to Posthumanism, and what it means to be posthuman. 

Sometimes referred to as transhumanism, we will look at the influence that technology has on life and evolution, and importantly what it means for contemporary identity. Do we have to reposition our identities to take into account the role that technology plays within our lives? And how is this redefining then represented in culture? 

I would like to thank Dr Kathryn Laing for suggesting the reading from N Katherine Hayles' book How we became Posthuman: Virtual bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics. 

The first chapter of the book is available here: 

http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/Hayles-Posthuman-excerpts.pdf

Additional information on N. Katherine Hayles can be found here:

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/321460.html

http://www.english.ucla.edu/faculty/hayles/

Our second seminar will take place on Thursday, November 8th at 5pm in room T202 in Mary Immaculate College. 

And we're off ... Observations from Seminar One

What an interesting and well attended first session!

It seems that postmodernism still holds quite the interest among the academic community in Limerick – and many different viewpoints and opinions were aired on the dawning of a new epoch and the influence of previous movements in thought, culture and history.

The impact of 9/11 and the economic crash featured heavily in the debate, while the idea of the return of the monster and othering were also considered. The discussion moved from human geography to the desire for answers and included the plurality of postmodernism, Vatican II, the endless deferral of meaning to localised happenings, making for a wide ranging, lively exploration of 'post-postmodernism' in multiple disciplines.

I would like to thank everyone for attending the seminar and for their interesting and informed contributions – I really enjoyed the first session and hope you did too.

If you have any further thoughts please share them here.

Deirdre  

Seminar One - Post Postmodernism

Post Postmodernism? Translit? Pseudo-modernism? Post-millennialism? Performatism? Metamodernism? If Postmodernism is dead, what has followed? Have we moved on, or are we still looking to the past? Is there room for postmodernism in a post 9/11 world?

These are all questions we will be asking and discussing when we met for our first seminar in the series. We will look at what has come after postmodernism, and what terminology we can use to accurately reflect that changes that have occurred since the start of the 21^st century.

Our first reading, suggested by Dr Maria Beville, looks at all those questions, and is sure to help inform our discussion.

From After Postmodernism : An Introduction to Critical Realism, by Garry Potter and Jose Lopez, the introduction After Postmodernism: The Millennium p3 -17. The book is available on Google books with a full preview of the introduction.

Click here:

http://books.google.ie/books?id=XLIdPlQIDwUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

The First seminar will take place on Thursday, October 11 at 5pm in T202.