The Production of Subjectivity in «The Diamond Age» by Neal Stephenson

The book brings to light Neal Stephenson's answer to the technologically induced crisis in identity. Using affect theory and its applications to literature, it explores how operations of subjectivation emerge in Neal Stephenson's technological novel «The Diamond Age».

The book brings to light Neal Stephenson's answer to the technologically induced crisis in identity. The author of this book analyses the ethnocultural, technological, and ideological skeins that make up the biopolitical production of the self. The coming-of-age novel «The Diamond Age» reflects the processes surrounding the emergence of conscience. Through his inspired recycling of cultural traditions, Stephenson's ethico-aesthetic engagement with technology, mass media, and literature advocates an epistemological change in being. This essay's use of affect theory shows how a specific work informs literary theory and thinking, and how literature goes beyond reflecting the «zeitgeist» by offering creative ways to apprehend technology.

Auteur

Sarah Jonckheere is a scholar at the University of Lille in France where she pursues a doctorate in Anglophone literature. Her work focuses on British and American literatures, literary theory, philosophy, and cinema as well as on affect theory.

Texte du rabat

The book brings to light Neal Stephenson s answer to the technologically induced crisis in identity. The author of this book analyses the ethnocultural, technological, and ideological skeins that make up the biopolitical production of the self. The coming-of-age novel «The Diamond Age» reflects the processes surrounding the emergence of conscience. Through his inspired recycling of cultural traditions, Stephenson s ethico-aesthetic engagement with technology, mass media, and literature advocates an epistemological change in being. This essay s use of affect theory shows how a specific work informs literary theory and thinking, and how literature goes beyond reflecting the «zeitgeist» **by offering creative ways to apprehend technology.

Contenu

The Machinic Ideological Production of Self - The Fashioned Body as an Invaded Territory - Collective Identities: The Mechanics of Living - Erasing The Pre-Personal Self: Post-Humanimality and Spectrality - The Accumulation of Affect - The Post-Cyberpunk Model: Subversion from the Inside - Deep Meaning, Deep Mining