A Study Of Posthuman Writing In William Gibson’s Cyberpunk Novels

William Ford Gibson(1948-)is an American-Canadian dual-national science fiction writer and the pioneer of the sub-science fiction genre ’Cyberpunk’.His novels absorb punk’s ’counter-cultural’ characteristics,describe the social picture of the information age in detail,and discuss the change of human nature by science and technology in the near future society and whether the essence of human self should be redefined,which can be said to be the science fiction prophecy of the post-human era.Through a close reading of many representative works of William Gibson,this paper discusses Gibson’s cyberpunk novels from the perspective of post-humanity,and tries to explore the post-human imagination of Gibson ’s novels from three aspects:post-human space,post-human form and post-human political practice,and interact with the real society.This paper includes three parts:introduction,text and conclusion.The text is divided into three chapters.The introduction first summarizes the life and creation of William Gibson;secondly,it briefly reviews the research status of Gibson ’s novels at home and abroad.Finally,it defines the concept of post-human position reflected in Gibson ’s cyberpunk novels,and summarizes the research value of this topic,which lays a foundation for the research of the text.The first chapter of the text combines the detailed interpretation of the specific text,discusses from two aspects of urban space and cyberspace,and discusses the possible changes of post-human space in the near future world in Gibson’s cyberspace punk novels.First of all,as the main spatial form of human survival,cities will inevitably derive new communities under the influence of science and technology,which will inevitably come at the expense of natural alienation.Secondly,Gibson put forward the concept of ’cyberspace’with great insight,which contains his creative imagination of another dimension of space in the information age,and includes the ultimate discussion of the spatialization of artificial intelligence.The second chapter discusses the posthuman body reconstruction in Gibson ’s novels,mainly using the posthuman theory of posthuman scholars Donna Haraway and N.Katherine Hayles to discuss the changes of human beings.When science and technology are fully involved in the living space of human beings,human beings will change their bodies to adapt to the new living environment.When the body is technicalized,human subjectivity is also facing the possibility of becoming a victim.The construction of ’post-human’ is imminent.The third chapter discusses the posthuman political practice in Gibson ’s cyberpunk novels.The political environment of post-human society reflects the dual nature of politics,and Gibson’s novels capture the spiritual characteristics of punk ’s ’resistance to everything’ and try to explore new possible paths for post-human political practice.In addition,the author also expands the field of discussion to the real world,trying to carry out political exploration in modern society.Conclusion summarizes the full text.The analysis of Gibson ’s cyberpunk novels from the three perspectives of post-human space,post-human self-construction and post-human political practice not only deepens the understanding of writers’ works,but also helps humans understand themselves.