A compelling case for considering popular films and novels as sites of an ethics confronting the ecological catastrophe, digitalisation and biotechnology.

Which of the possible futures might be a good future, and how do we know? Stephanie Bender looks at contemporary films and novels to address major ethical challenges of the future: the ecological catastrophe, digitalisation and biotechnology. She proposes that fiction and its modes of aesthetic simulation and emotional engagement offer a different way of knowing and judging possible futures. From a critical posthumanist angle, she discusses works ranging from Don DeLillo's Zero K (2017) and Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy (2003-2013) to Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 as well as Avatar (2009), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017) among many others.

Autorentext
Stephanie Bender is engaged in sowing seeds for better futures on several fields: Using the knowledge she has gained throughout her doctorate in English literary and cultural studies she teaches courses at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. She turns theory into practice on the fields of Community Supported Agriculture as the degrowth future of sustainable food production. And finally, she takes care of two small members of a future generation of humankind that will hopefully tread more lightly on earth than their predecessors.