Biofictions: Literary and Visual Imagination in the Age of Biotechnology (Routledge Focus on Literature)

By:

Sign Up Now! Already a Member? Log In
You must be logged into Bookshare to access this title. Learn about membership options, or view our freely available titles.

Synopsis
Biofictions introduces three novel concepts: ‘biofiction,’ ‘bioimagination,’ and ‘biodiscourse’ to talk about intersections of literary and visual texts and biotechnology. The book proposes a new interdisciplinary area of research that correlates processes of genetics and literature, based on two critical approaches. One, drawing parallels between the genetic codes, human language, formal (binary) language and posthuman communication and the role of meaning and imagination in these forms of communication. Two, by defining "biofictions" as a critical scientific-artistic concept and as a corpus of texts that engage ideas and developments in molecular biology. Syncretic connection between biotechnology and literature is especially evident in an open science movement and a literary artistic genre of biopunk, discussed across chapters. The study includes well-known contemporary texts such as David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, that are re-contextualized as biofiction, it offers a re-reading of important but neglected novels such as Thomas Disch’s Camp Concentration (1967) and it analyzes new visual texts such as the TV series Altered Carbon and Ghost in the Shell films. Based on these wide-ranging examples and new critical concepts, the book argues that coming up with possible alterations for the genetic code or intended traits for the organism is a discursive practice that brings into being bio-narratives that are both organic and literary. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Copyright:
2021

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
120 Pages
ISBN-13:
9781000441574
Related ISBNs:
9780367676865, 9780367676759, 9781003132325
Publisher:
Taylor and Francis
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Lejla Kucukalic
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Literature and Fiction, Language Arts
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

Reviews

No Rating Yet