A Posthumanist Perspective On Issac Asimov's Robot Fictions

Isaac Asimov(1920-1992),known as the father of robot fiction,is one of the “Big Three” in the golden age of western science fiction.His “Three Laws of Robotics” lays the foundation for later robot novels.Asimov is also a biologist.The identity as a scientist offers him with interdisciplinary perspectives.Asimovian robots persist in questioning the nature of human beings,the boundaries between human and nonhuman,and so on.The exploration of these questions runs through Asimov's whole writing career,and is also one of the core issues of posthumanism.Posthumanism reflects and develops western traditional humanism.Its main characteristics include: deconstructing the traditional man,constructing subject identity of nonhuman,and paying attention to “what makes man a posthuman”.From the perspective of posthumanism,this thesis takes Asimov's robot fictions as the research object,including his four robot detective serial novels,namely,The Cave of Steel,The Naked Sun,The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire,as well as a collection of short stories,The Complete Robots.This thesis analyzes how Asimov deconstructs the central status of human beings,constructs the subject identity of robots,and explores the boundary of human-robot integration in his robot fictions.There are six chapters in this thesis.The first chapter introduces the research object,makes a review to the current researches at home and abroad and clarifies the significance of the thesis.The second chapter is the theoretical basis,which combs the origin,development and main concepts of posthumanism,and points out Asimov's posthumanist way of writing.The third chapter mainly answers how Asimov's robot fictions deconstruct traditional human.From the aspects of body,language and identity,Asimov broke the boundaries between human and robot,and in this way,deconstructed the human priority.The fourth chapter focuses on the construction of robots' subject identity in Asimov's robot fictions,proceeded with the following steps: robots' struggle for subject status,the changes of human attitudes towards robots,and the change of human-robot relationship.The fifth chapter analyzes Asimov's reflections on human uniqueness in the posthuman age with human-robot integration.He believes that the differences between human and robot lie in human embodiment,subjective initiative and unpredictable potentials in creating future.The reflection shows Asimov's profoundness in exploring human nature and his sense of responsibility as a writer.The sixth chapter summarizes the major findings of this thesis.Based on the summary,this chapter further points out Asimov's significance to people today and his contradictions.In the middle of the 20 th century,with the rise of artificial intelligence,Asimov,as a serious humanist,realized that the changes brought by technological development.It can be seen that Asimov frankly accepts the future of human-robot integration and advocates their harmonious coexistence.At the same time,he explores human uniqueness,which provides a reference for indistinguishable human-robot boundaries in today.