What the Body Can Do in Utopias and Dystopias? Figurations of the Posthuman in Science Fiction

Abstract

At a time when dystopian narratives seem to extrapolate their fictional borders, utopias are increasingly necessary. But what do utopias and dystopias have to tell us about bodies that (re)produce, especially through the point of view of the relationship between body and technology, so intrinsic to current human existence? Are these premonitory narratives of genetic manipulation, pharmacological interference and aesthetic procedures, or just a means of exposing the transformations that humanity has been going through the last few years? To what extent does the human being continue to be human and to what extent can its nature be altered from its mutations? The boundaries between human and posthuman, interlaced by the figure of the cyborg, are constantly explored in fictional narratives, especially in science fiction works. Stemming from this and other figurations of the posthuman, such as artificial intelligences, androids and humans connected to cyberspace, this essay aims to raise questions from the possible bodies in/of utopias and dystopias, dialoguing with a series of intermedia references, highlighting posthuman bodies of science fiction narratives and ontological issues linked to them.