Neoliberalism and cyberpunk science fiction : living on the edge of burnout / Caroline Alphin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alphin, Caroline, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Neoliberalism and literature.

Neoliberalism in popular culture.

Cyberpunk fiction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (128 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

First Edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, New York ; Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, [2021]

Summary:

"Caroline Alphin presents an original exploration of biopolitics by examining it through the lens of cyberpunk science fiction. Comprised of five chapters, Neoliberalism and Cyberpunk Science Fiction is guided by four central themes: biopolitics, intensification, resilience, and accelerationism. The first chapters examine the political possibilities of cyberpunk as a genre of science fiction and introduce one kind of neoliberal subject, the self-monitoring cyborg. These are individuals who join fitness/health tracking devices and applications to their body to "self-cultivate". Here, Alphin presents concrete examples of how fitness trackers are a strategy of neoliberal governmentality under the guise of self-cultivation. Moving away from Foucault's biopolitics to themes of intensity and resilience, Alphin draws largely from William Gibson's Neuromancer, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon, along with the film Blade Runner to problematize notions of neoliberal resilience. Alphin returns to biopolitics, intensity, and resilience, connecting these themes to accelerationism as she engages with biohacker discourses. Here she argues that a biohacker is, in part, an intensification of the self-monitoring cyborg and accelerationism is in the end another form of resilience. Neoliberalism and Cyberpunk Science Fiction is an invaluable resource for those interested in security studies, political sociology, biopolitics, critical IR theory, political theory, cultural studies, and literary theory"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Living on the edge of burnout

The neoliberal science fictions of cyberpunk

Self-monitoring as instrumentalized self-cultivation

Subtle state killing as a mode of neoliberal governmentality

Cyberpunk necroscapes and necro-temporality in Blade Runner

Reframing the biohacker within the logic of intensity

Conclusion: Defamiliarizing neoliberalism through cyberpunk science fiction.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-00-304450-6

1-003-04450-6

1-000-32790-6

1-000-32794-9

9781003044505

OCLC:

1201696346