[ecrea] New Book: Biopunk Dystopias Genetic Engineering, Society and Science Fiction by Lars Schmeink

*New book announcement from Liverpool University Press*

Biopunk Dystopias Genetic Engineering, Society and Science Fiction 
<http://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/80796>

By Lars Schmeink

'Biopunk Dystopias' contends that we find ourselves at a historical 
nexus, defined by the rise of biology as the driving force of scientific 
progress, a strongly grown mainstream attention given to genetic 
engineering in the wake of the Human Genome Project (1990-2003), the 
changing sociological view of a liquid modern society, and shifting 
discourses on the posthuman, including a critical posthumanism that 
decenters the privileged subject of humanism. The book argues that this 
historical nexus produces a specific cultural formation in the form of 
"biopunk", a subgenre evolved from the cyberpunk of the 1980s. The 
analysis deals with dystopian science fiction artifacts of different 
media from the year 2000 onwards that project a posthuman intervention 
into contemporary socio-political discourse based in liquid modernity in 
the cultural formation of biopunk. Biopunk makes use of current 
posthumanist conceptions in order to criticize contemporary reality as 
already dystopian, warning that a future will only get worse, and that 
society needs to reverse its path, or else destroy all life on this 
planet. As Rosi Braidotti argues, "there is a posthuman agreement that 
contemporary science and biotechnologies affect the very fibre and 
structure of the living and have altered dramatically our understanding 
of what counts as the basic frame of reference for the human today". The 
proposed book analyzes this alteration as directors, creators, authors, 
and artists from the field of science fiction extrapolate it from 
current trends.

/'A comprehensive, meticulously researched, and wide-ranging 
intervention in the union between genetic discourse and contemporary 
science fiction that has the potential to be very influential in the 
field.' /

Professor Gerry Canavan, Marquette University

/'An important intervention into the ways sf studies is done - it is no 
longer even remotely credible to treat sf as just a literary genre - and 
the strengths of this book makes that argument more effectively than any 
polemic about the transmediality of sf.' /

Mark Bould, University of the West of England

Liverpool Science Fiction Texts and Studies 56

HB ISBN: 9781781383766

December 2016

288 pages

£75.00 - /(currently 50% off in our Christmas sale until December 16^th 
, £37.50 with code christmas50 
<http://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/blogs/news/christmas-sale>)/

Please find /Biopunk Dystopias/and other Science Fiction Texts and 
Studies online at www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk 
<http://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk>

*Heather Gallagher*|*/Marketing Executive/*

*Liverpool University Press *|4 Cambridge Street, Liverpool L69 7ZU, UK

T: +44 (0)151 795 2350| W: www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk 
<http://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/>

twitter <https://twitter.com/LivUniPress>| catalogue 
<https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0791/4263/files/AW16_Catalogue_Online.pdf?724663879707988788>| 
ebooks <http://liverpool.universitypressscholarship.com/>| Instagram 
<https://www.instagram.com/livunipress/>

CHRISTMAS SALE! Use the code *CHRISTMAS50* on our website to get *50% 
off*! Includes all books until 16^th December 2016.


---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please
use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------