Transgressing the Code of Desire: Queering the Posthuman in Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous
Keywords:
transgender, sexuality, posthumanism, cyborg, robot narratorsAbstract
ABSTRACT: The cyborg, a being that merges the technological with the biological, is frequently used as a conceptual tool to dismantle binaries and explore the nature-culture continuum. However, SF representations of cyborgs tend to be anthropocentric. Annalee Newitz’s novel Autonomous (2017) problematizes this figure by refusing to call its hybrids as such, nuancing their utopian aspects. This article examines gender and sexuality in the novel in relation to biobots and their relation to trans and nonbinary identities. It explores how its queer and inhuman characters disrupt the heteronormative code where they are inscribed. Relying on Luciano and Chen’s (2014) concept of the inhuman and on Braidotti’s (2013) posthuman relational subject, this article envisions two types of desire transgressions. The first transgression is transhumanist, based on biohacking. The second one is critical posthumanist, based on queer epistemological hacking through bodily interactions and confrontations, a metaphorical biohacking of the narrative code that intersects our DNA.
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