A Study Of The Construction Of Posthuman Subjectivity In John Barth's Giles Goat-boy

John Barth(1930-)is an important American novelist whose works are famous for the uses of parody,satire and metafiction techniques.His novels reflect the characteristics of different historical periods and literary trends.Published in 1966,Giles Goat-Boy was his first bestseller and received attention from critics.However,there are still some limitations in current studies,most of which focus on Barth's experimental techniques with postmodern features,or interpreting the novel from the perspective of philosophy and mythology,as well as analyzing the metaphor in it which correlates with the real world in the context of the Cold War.Barth's thoughts and predictions on the development of human society are more or less ignored by critics.Also few scholars pay attention to sci-fi elements and human/machine symbiosis in this novel.From the perspective of posthumanism,this thesis will discuss the construction of posthuman subjectivity in Giles Goat-Boy.With the help of cybernetics theory,the concept of disembodiment/embodiment as well as critical posthumanism,this thesis proposes that Giles Goat-Boy exhibits a posthuman world that suffers from subjectivity crisis.Traditional liberal human subject is endangered in the postmodern society.Two “Grand Tutors”—Harold Bray and George Giles—refer to two ways to the construction of posthuman subjectivity as well as two kinds of posthuman discourse.The “virtual subject” constructed by Bray fails because of its inner contradiction.Meanwhile Giles transcends the binary opposition and constructs his posthuman subjectivity within a monistic ontology,providing a possible way after liberal humanism in a posthuman world.The first chapter examines the posthuman dilemma in this novel by looking into two characters: the scientist Max Spielman and the intelligent machine WESCAC.As the spokesman of traditional liberal humanism,Max reveals its bright side as well as dark side.His death indicates that the traditional humanism subject is bound to fade away in a posthuman condition.WESCAC represents the inhuman other that gains subjectivity.As WESCAC gains its subjectivity and becomes the master rather than the slave,the subjectivity crisis happens.The second chapter discusses the false Tutor Bray's instrumental posthuman practice and its failure.Bray's virtual subject is in fact construct by two concepts: the disembodied information and the artificial life.However,this virtual subject emphasizes consciousness over materiality,creating a dilemma between disembodiment and embodiment,which eventually leads to Bray's failure and disappearance.The third chapter focuses on the protagonist Giles and analyzes the posthuman subject he constructs as he tries to become the Grand Tutor.This chapter applies Joseph Campbell's mythology theory as the main frame,together with Gilles Deleuze's notion of “body without organs” and Braidotti's proposition of “transpositions” to argue that Giles construct a nomadic posthuman subject,calling for “unity” with his monistic ontology.Therefore,Giles Goat-Boy can be regarded as a prophetic work which provides a possible way for the posthuman subjectivity after humanism.