Date of Award
8-9-2023
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Type
Dissertation
Abstract
This dissertation examines the representations of nonhuman cyborgs in German and American literature to define a conception of the “cyborg animal.” I utilize the phrase “cyborg animal” to designate technologically adapted, nonhuman organisms whose survival is often dependent on the technologies that are integrated into their bodies and behaviors. I argue that the cyborg animal decenters human understandings of the environment and, more broadly, definitions of the “natural.” Textual analyses of literary works are combined with critical perspectives drawn from ecocritical and queer theory. This dissertation considers an array of contemporary literature from the United States and Germany that portrays technological interactions in varying ways. The main texts include Kira Jane Buxton’s Hollow Kingdom (2019), Yoko Tawada’s Etüden im Schnee, Thomas von Steinaecker’s Die Verteidigung des Paradieses (2016), Dietmar Dath’s Die Abschaffung der Arten (2008), Jeff VanderMeer’s Borne (2017), Ken Liu’s “Good Hunting,” and Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians (2020). I argue that this collection of texts provides a diverse sense of the cyborg animal in anthropocentric spaces. The cyborg animal is a vital figure in contemporary representations of climate change and environmental decay. These creatures go beyond the nature/culture binary and represent alternative ways to understand the future of technology in conjunction with the lives and the adaptive strategies of nonhuman species.
Language
English (en)
Chair and Committee
Kurt Beals
Recommended Citation
Jordan, Rebecca, "The Cyborg Animal in the Anthropocene: Nonhuman Species’ Narratives of Survival in Contemporary German and North American Literature" (2023). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3220.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/3220