Posthuman Bodies in the Making: Woman and Technology in The Girl Who Was Plugged In

Article Sidebar

altralangvol6issue1
PDF
Published: Jun 30, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52919/altralang.v6i1.438
Keywords:
Artificial feelings, consciousness, female body, posthumanism, technology

Main Article Content

Soumia OURNID
University of Chlef Hassiba Benbouali, Algeria
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0175-3405
Houaria CHAAL
University of Chlef Hassiba Benbouali, Algeria
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0040-6866

Abstract

It has long been thought of ‘a world governed by technology’ as part of an unreached future. Nevertheless, the current reality is, in many aspects, a manifestation of what the works of science fiction once foresaw. The rapprochement between the content of this genre and its reification begs the question of survival, or rather, the shape of survival in a technological world. Hence, this article is an endeavor to reflect the influence of technology demonstrated in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In (1973) on reality. To reach this end, the novella is regarded from a posthumanist prism with the aim of speculating the meaning and the making of the female mind and body in the Age of Machine. The paper also evokes aspects from the feminist and Marxist schools in relating facts with fiction to reflect upon the speculative dimension of the science fiction genre insofar as the schools provide a profound insight into the realistic social features that can be found in literary texts. The textual analysis reveals that technology feeds humans’ superficiality towards the female consciousness and physique, which is manifested in areas related to beauty standards, consumption, and love, and interferes with redefining the human by detaching the mind from the body.

Article Details

How to Cite
OURNID, S., & CHAAL, H. (2024). Posthuman Bodies in the Making: Woman and Technology in The Girl Who Was Plugged In. ALTRALANG Journal, 6(1), 416-427. https://doi.org/10.52919/altralang.v6i1.438
Issue
Vol 6 No 1 (2024): ALTRALANG Journal Volume: 6 Issue: 1 / June 2024
Section
Articles

All authors published in ALTRALANG Journal retain the copyright to their work and grant ALTRALANG Journal the right of first publication. Simultaneously, the work is licensed under an open-access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license meaning that anyone may download and read the article for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted, provided that the original published version is cited. Such terms facilitate extensive utilisation and visibility of the scholarly output while guaranteeing due recognition to the authors.

Authors sign a Copyright Agreement Form to provide the copyrights to ALTRALANG Journal needed to publish and disseminate the article in current and future formats, including migrating journals to new platforms and preserving journal content.

PROTECTING AUTHOR RIGHTS: Copyright aims to protect the specific way the article has been written to describe an experiment and the results. ALTRALANG Journal is committed to its authors to protect and defend their work and their reputation and takes allegations of infringement, plagiarism, ethic disputes, and fraud very seriously.

LICENSE:  This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license

Author Biographies

Soumia OURNID, University of Chlef Hassiba Benbouali, Algeria

Soumia OURNID is a Ph.D. student of literature at Hassiba Benbouali University of Chlef, Algeria. She obtained her master’s degree in literature and civilization from Blida 2 University, Algeria. Her Master’s dissertation revolves around minority literature and black feminism. She is currently specialized in contemporary American literature, and her area of research is science fiction and fictional dystopian texts.

Houaria CHAAL, University of Chlef Hassiba Benbouali, Algeria

Dr. Houaria CHAAL is a Lecturer (MCA) at the English Department of Hassiba Benbouali University of Chlef, Algeria. She obtained her MA then PhD degrees in translation from Oran University, Algeria. She has been supervising master’s and PhD students of didactics, literature, and linguistics. Her area of research is translation studies and language teaching. She is currently exploring literary translation difficulties and is working on translation in the New Era (the Digital Era). Her research is published in three languages, namely English, French, and Arabic.

References

• Atwood, M. (1990). The Female Body. Michigan Quarterly Review, 29(4), 490–493.
• Bukatman, S. (1993). Terminal identity: The virtual subject in postmodern science fiction. Duke University Press. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=63GtQqaHxBEC&oi=fnd&pg=PP19&dq=2.%09Bukatman,+S.+(1993).+Terminal+identity:+The+virtual+subject+in+postmodern+science+fiction.+Duke+University+Press.&ots=P79QC3jhhD&sig=r-aL5OpFNtmxO2a3s44qKGAgl-M
• Csicsery-Ronay Jr, I. (1991). The SF of Theory: Baudrillard and Haraway (La SF De La Théorie: Baudrillard Et Haraway). Science Fiction Studies, 387–404.
• De Beauvoir, S. (2010). The Second Sex. Knopf.
• Drewitz, T.-J. (2022). Redefining Humanity: Posthumanism in the American Science Fiction Narratives of Octavia Butler’s Dawn and Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice. REDEN. Revista Española de Estudios Norteamericanos, 4(1), 59–75.
• Eugene, A. R., & Masiak, J. (2015). The Neuroprotective Aspects of Sleep. MEDtube Science, 3(1), 35–40.
• Gordon, A. (1993). Posthuman Identity Crisis. Science Fiction Studies, 20(3), 444–448. JSTOR.
• Haraway, D. (2013). A manifesto for cyborgs: Science, technology, and socialist feminism in the 1980s. In Feminism/postmodernism (pp. 190–233). Routledge. https://api.taylorfrancis.com/content/chapters/edit/download?identifierName=doi&identifierValue=10.4324/9780203699386-12&type=chapterpdf
• Hollinger, V. (1999). (Re) reading queerly: Science fiction, feminism, and the defamiliarization of gender. Science Fiction Studies, 23–40.
• Lyotard, J.-F. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge (Vol. 10). U of Minnesota Press.
• McNall, S. G. (1990). You Are What You Eat: Some Thoughts on Consumption and Marxist Class Theory. Mid-American Review of Sociology, 14(1/2), 45–52.
• Mitchell, K. (2006). Bodies that matter: Science fiction, technoculture, and the gendered body. Science Fiction Studies, 109–128.
• Pepperell, R. (1995). The post-human condition. Intellect books.
• Searle, J. R. (1980). Minds, brains, and programs. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(3), 417–424.
• Stevenson, M. C. (2007). Trying to plug in: Posthuman cyborgs and the search for connection. Science Fiction Studies, 87–105.
• Tiptree, J., & Sheldon, A. B. (1989). The girl who was plugged in. Tom Doherty Associates. https://www.f.waseda.jp/sidoli/Tiptree_Girl_Plugged_In.pdf