Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: H. G. Wells’ novel The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) is a bleak critique of the Victorian notion that evolution can provide ethical or social guidance to humanity. This essay reads the novel in the context of the contemporary debate between posthumanism and transhumanism. By applying theoretical models derived from Braidotti, Agamben, Wolfe and others, the essay argues that Wells’ evolutionary antihumanism provides a corrective to both critical posthumanism’s attempts to articulate a non-anthropocentric ethics, and to transhumanism’s dreams of transcending humanity. The essay considers the chronotope of an island polity in the context of evolutionary antihumanism by comparing Wells’ novel with the contemporary biotech thriller Island 731 (2013) by Jeremy Robinson.
Source: Journal of Posthumanism
Author: Elana Gomel
Institution: Tel Aviv University
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4388906365