Research On Female Body From The Perspective Of Posthumanism

Posthuman feminism is a product of the development of feminism in the posthuman situation.Feminism has developed an infinite vitality in rethinking subjectivity,gender,and the materiality of the body and opens a productive path for the posthuman.With a focus on the “female body”,this thesis provides an overview of feminism and posthumanism,which will deepen and advance the understanding of both contemporary posthuman and feminist critical theories.Feminism and posthumanism face a similar dualistic dilemma.The feminism often falls into the dilemma of masculocentrism,while posthumanism often paradoxically returns to an anthropocentric perspective.Therefore,it is inevitable and possible to link feminism with the posthumanism.The posthuman perspective adopted in this paper seeks to rethink the framework of binary oppositions and anthropomorphic thinking,and to combine the feminist approach with science fiction narratives and cultural practices to examine the real status of the female body in contemporary technology,culture and society.It reveals what new characteristics and changes are embedded in the female body from the posthuman perspective,and then explores the inspirations and dilemmas of posthuman theory and feminism and the possible solutions from the changes of the female body from the posthuman perspective.This paper focuses on the following three parts.First,it presents the complex aspects of the current “posthuman” research,and clarifies what kind of posthumanism is what we need now or in the future to not only solve the current posthuman dilemma but also be more effectively applied to contemporary cultural and literary practices.It also explores the possibility that the anti-anthropocentric ideas embedded in the study of the“postisms” in the West will return paradoxically to anthropocentrism.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the characteristics of posthuman theory from a feminist perspective,such as pluralistic interaction,anti-binary opposition,immediate production,indeterminacy,situated experience,and embodiment,etc.These posthuman characteristics are combined to redefine the concept of the female body from the posthuman perspective and the transformation of its characteristics.Second,it discusses the new fields of female body expansion from the posthuman perspective,mainly focusing on the human-machine interaction field that breaks the boundary between human and machine,and the virtual-reality interaction field that breaks the boundary between imagination and reality.This part investigates the status and transformation,theoretical significance,and practical value of the female body in these two posthuman fields from a feminist perspective.The expansion of the aforementioned fields are liberating the female body,but still have some limits.Third,the two key words directly related to female bodies,namely mother’s body and its reproduction,are taken as the core by feminist theory.And the mother’s body is also adopted as a tandem of three important concepts from the posthuman perspective,namely “computer”,“monster/monstrum” and “life”.Through the interaction between mother and computer technology,mother and monster,and mother and life,the unique presentation and multiple expressions of mother’s body from the posthuman perspective are discussed.This part also explores how to construct an active embodied mother and female subject when the concept of “mother’s body” is shaken by technology.