Neoliberalism and Cyberpunk Science Fiction : Living on the Edge of Burnout (Paperback)

ID: Cvlhdlc2pK

In this book Caroline Alphin presents an original exploration of biopolitics by examining it through the lens of cyberpunk science fiction. 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.