RECONFIGURING THE HUMAN MAPPING CRITICAL POSTHUMANISM IN THE SELECT NOVELS OF A E VAN VOGT DON DELILLO and OLAF STAPLEDON

Abstract

Since the period of the Renaissance, numerous literary works have propagated the idea of the human assiduously. These texts foreground the rationality and the faculty of the autonomy of man. Furthermore, the literature written in the postmodern scenario portrays the intermingling of the human and the nonhuman or machine. This amalgamation is reflected in the theory of Critical Posthumanism. newlineExpressions like Humanism and Critical Posthumanism are frequently used by theorists, philosophers and futurists which include N. Katherine Hayles and Neil Badmington who have worked on the purpose of posthumanism i.e. downloading human awareness into machines. They argue that it is indicative of a sort of overstimulated humanism which clones the dualist idea of a sovereign man. newlineNeil Badmington puts forward the theoretical framework of Critical Posthumanism as a punitive to humanism. Taking into consideration the idea of downloading awareness into a machine and the production of robots, Critical Posthumanism endeavours to deconstruct the idea of humanism from the inside by focusing on the internal conflicts of man s self. newlineMan, who previously was the nucleus of the entire cosmos, has presently become itinerant and benumbed under the appearance of digital technologies. newline