Critical Annotated Webliography

Question 2: “From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human.” Discuss critically.

The definition of ‘human’ is subjective. However, it is most commonly identified by the mind, body and soul. In Frankenstein and the Visible Human Project, the body was subject to medical manipulation. In response to these cases of scientific advancement, we can recognise the body as a limit to ‘what it means to be human’. I conducted my research by searching Google Scholar under the phrases; ‘Visible Human Project and body’ and ‘posthuman and body’. I expanded the search to ‘posthuman studies’ as it addresses the contemporary significance of the body to humans in this ‘age of information’.

The Visible Human Project marked a significant moment in the technological and medical advancement of the human body. As Catherine Waldby illustrates in her article “Revenants: the Visible Human Project and the Digital Uncanny”, the digitisation of the human body occurred when a man from death row named Jernigan offered his body in the name of science. It redefined the boundaries between the human body and virtual space. The transformation of the human body into data, made it visible for everyone to view on the internet. Waldby notes in her article that the digitisation of the body is much “like a photograph which ‘records’ scenes, persons and objects”. She also draws attention to Petchesky who argued that “photographic imagery… can resurrect the dead”. This raises questions over Jernigan’s immortality through the Visible Human Project. Furthermore, it distorts the boundaries between human and machine (or computer). The project has prompted concern over the power of medical technologies to manipulate the living and the dead. Thus, Waldby provides a valuable perspective on bodies in the ‘digital age’.

The digitisation of bodies is a result of technological advancements which have given rise to theories surrounding ‘posthumanism’. This refers to a state of being human which is more advanced and everlasting. In “Gnosis in Cyberspace? Body, Mind and Progress in Posthumanism”, Oliver Krueger assesses the posthumanist theories regarding the ‘immortal existence in virtuality’ and the ‘disappearance of our bodies and bodily senses’. While, humans may ‘live on’ in cyberspace, our bodies are no longer significant. Krueger also sheds light over claims made by many posthumanists that the body is a just biological feature which can be ‘overcome’. Bodies are seen as a limit to being human because they are more susceptible to aging and deterioration. They also must ‘compete with the light speed of electronic media and computers’ in a technologically orientated world. Furthermore, bodies are a defining feature of our identity. The body is therefore a restraint on the social boundaries that inform our cultural identities. In the virtual world of cyberspace we have the opportunity to distort or reinvent our identities. As a result we can challenge issues of race and gender. Krueger’s article highlights how this has given rise to the posthuman theories which claim that human bodies are becoming obsolete. So, the body limits our human capacity and is therefore becoming obsolete.

On the other hand, Judith Halberstam and Ira Livingston argue that this is not the case in “Posthuman Bodies”. In their article, these writers delve into the tensions created by the polarisation of ‘real’ and ‘virtual’, nature and technology. In posthumansim, these binaries also cause conflicts in determining what it means to be human, as boundaries to the mind and body are broken. Halberstam and Livingston argue that ‘you’re not human until you’re posthuman’. While Posthumansim ensures the ‘re-distribution for difference and identity’, it does not necessitate the obsolescence of the human’. So, this article provides an alternative perspective to the interpretation that the body limits what it means to be human.

In the article, “Catastrophic Subjects: Feminism, Posthuman, and Difference”, Kim Toffoletti describes the ‘catastrophic’ effects of posthumansim. This is illustrated by the cover of Marilyn Manson’s album Mechanical Animals, through which Manson is shown as a digitised androgynous figure. This figure resonates with posthuman ideas, as it destabilises identities. The manipulation of the human body in Manson’s picture reiterates the idea that the gendered and racial body limits human identity. Toffoletti explains that ‘Manson not only problemtises gendered difference but the very status of the body and embodies reality as the sites where identity resides’. Without a body, gender and race identities become irrelevant. However, the image also generates a sense of fear through the confronting position of Manson facing towards the viewers and the dark redness in his eyes. Manson is drawing attention to the fear we have of the unknown. As a result, Toffoletti concludes that the potential danger or threat surrounding the posthuman is ‘unstable, transformative and catastrophic’.

“Augmented Bodies: Theory on the Fringe” by Ariel Fuenzalida provides an alarming glimpse into the consequences of bodies becoming ‘obsolete’. She refers to the Greek and Renaissance conception ‘wherein self and body are thought to “coincide” in the image of bodily perfection’. While the ‘perfect body’ is beautiful and healthy, the ‘grotesque body’ as Fuenzalida suggests, ‘is being invaded by technology’. This is evident in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, through which the creature is produced as a result of the manipulation of medicine. He is labelled ‘monstrous’ by other characters in the novel ultimately condemned. These concerns have arisen due to Medical breakthroughs such as the Visible Human Project, human cloning and genetic engineering which distort the original form of the body. Fuenzalida argues that through these technological advances, the body is entering ‘a process of productive becoming that threatens to lead somewhere “beyond” human’. Thus, the posthuman body diminishes what it means to be human. Fuenzalida argues that it ‘carries with it the threat of annihilating the notions of human integrity, inviolability, supremacy and individual agency.’ So, in a posthuman state, the manipulation of the body is seen as a limit to being human.

Thus, while bodies are continuously subject to the advancement and experimentations of medical science, human existence is moving towards a posthuman state. The articles which I have found deal with the implications of the body in such a state and how this effects what it means to be human. This is also evident in the novel Frankenstein and the Visible Human Project where concerns are raised over the technological manipulation of human bodies. Ideas involving posthumanism destabilise our gender and race-informed identities and the body is therefore interpreted as obsolete and ultimately limits ‘what it means to be human’.

References
Fuenzalida, Ariel (2004) “Augmented Bodies: Theory on the Fringe” http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/literary_research-ef/no41-42/articles/article2.html (accessed 28 September 2008).

Halberstam, Judith & Livingston, Ira (1997) “Introduction: Posthuman Bodies”, http://www.cas.buffalo.edu/classes/dms/berna/dms434/readings/posthumanbodies.pdf (accessed 2 October 2008).

Krueger, Oliver (2005) “Gnosis in Cyberspace? Body, Mind and Progress in Posthumanism”, Journal of Evolution and Technology 14. http://www.jetpress.org/volume14/krueger.html (accessed 29 September 2008).

Toffoletti, Kim (2004) “Catastrophic Subjects: Feminism, the Posthuman, and Difference”, Thirdspace 3, http://www.thirdspace.ca/articles/3_2_toffoletti.htm (accessed 30 September 2008).

Waldby, Catherine 1996, Revenants: The Visible Human Project and the Digital Uncanny, [Online] Perth: Murdoch University, Available from: http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/VID/Uncanny.html (accessed 24 August 2008).