• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2020

We aim to reinterpret Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer through theory of posthumanism. Posthuman is a compound word of 'post' and 'human', which means transcendent-man. However, we would like to extend the meaning of posthuman or cyborgs as not only to "new human figure, or transcendent-man" but as to "human living in a digital age of converged technology". Through the extension of the meaning of posthuman, we would be able to not only find posthuman in Science Fiction movies but also apply it to our real world. Also, through the extended meaning, we will reinterpret all the elements from the film as cyberspace and as posthuman or cyborgs. Moreover, through examination of these "cyborg figures" in Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer (2013), we argue that the film is criticizing posthumanism in the reality that these days, people are losing the humanity due to the combination with the machine. It seems that he claims of the collapse of the current system, suggesting new human generation as the solution.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Arts Education Studies
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.1-17
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• 2010

The posthumanism, as it is discussed in several areas of the humanities, calls the modern humanist concept of autonomous subject into question. The scientific psychology has been since its birth as independent discipline at the 19th century a 'posthuman psychology' in the sense that there has been always humanistic approaches to humans as autonomous beings on the one hand, and natural-scientific approaches to humans as determined beings on the other hand. I have argued that the concept of autonomous subject makes still sense as a regulating principle of everyday life of purposive agents and as a conceptual framework for interpreting causal knowledges about humans. And I have argued that culture and cultural education should play an important role in reflecting on the meaning and rationality of sciences and technologies.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.129-162
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• 2017

Ruth Ozeki(Japanese-American female novelist)?s recent novel, A Tale for the Time Being (2013) draws our attention because the fiction shows very interesting fictional experiments, especially in terms of post-humanism. Indeed, the novel is not a science fiction at all which has been, and still is, the typical fictional field employed in the discussion for the transhumanism and posthumanism. It also does not include any cybogs, robots, or aliens which provoke the posthumanism-related issues like mind/body, human/nonhuman, nature/culture relations. Indeed, it seems "merely" represent realistic day-to-day lives of ordinary people living in contemporary Japan and Canada, and in very minute and particular details at that. Indeed, the central action of the main characters of the novel seems very traditional, that is on the one hand writing a diary by a teenage girl who is counting the days and weeks before her suicide and on the other hand reading it by a female novelist who happens to find her diary several years later. Nevertheless, I would like to suggest that underneath this traditional narrative surface are simmering post-humanist and post-anthropocentric worldviews beyond liberal Humanism which takes human beings to be exceptional against human or non-human others. Not only in narrative contents and characterizations but also through narrative structure and strategies, the novel enacts post-humanist and post-anthropocentric worldviews which are interestingly drawn from both age-old Buddhist ideas and modern eco-philosophy and quantum physics. I would like to stress that what triggers the author's fictional experiments helping our rethinking and redefining "what human beings are" and "what the relation between humans and nonhumans" is not merely intellectual interests but her keen and passionate response to the heart-breaking pains and sufferings of human and nonhuman beings caused by the contemporary natural-artificial catastrophes and techno-scientific predicaments.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.315-320
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• 2022

This study intends to deal with the flow of posthumanism after humanism, which views humans from the same dimension as other living things, and the problem of transhumanism, which originated from it, but on the contrary, dreams of augmented humans through science and technology. After that, this study intends to examine how the modern theory of justice can evaluate the situation about these two extremes. In particular, the guide we have chosen in relation to the theory of justice, is Michael Sandel, and by passing the problem of future post/transhumanism into this discussion, we propose how we can evaluate the flow of future anthropology from the standpoint of the traditional theory of justice. Post/transhumanism and its various events are approaching as our inevitable fate. However, along with this inevitable situation, many discussions are still needed in order to pass the theory of justice and to be accepted as valid.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.140-146
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• 2019

Andrew Niccols's movie Gattaca (1997) inspired the formulation of the "Gattaca Argument" concerning the negative outcome of biotechnology, which has since been critiqued especially in the context of transhumanism and posthumanism. According this argument the development of genetic enhancement will produce a genetic discrimination and lead us to serious form of inequality. However, in particular transhumanists deny that here are reasons to worry and advocating instead the transformation of human condition in terms of genetic enhancement. Moreover, they question that genetic enhancement will necessarily lead to social inequality. In what follows, we will reexamine the Gattaca Argument and its critiques based on the movie in order to reassess the role the movie plays in the subsequent scholarly discussion. We will argue that existing critiques fall short of capturing the problem posed in the movie - the problem of the inhumane. Based on a hermeneutic approach to the movie we will both reconstruct the arguments and evaluate the transhuman counterarguments in terms of modern history of philosophical ideas.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.40
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• pp.111-131
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• 2015

An unusual success engendering loyalty among cult fans in the United States, Mamoru Oshii's 1995 cyberpunk anime, Ghost in the Shell (GITS) revolves around a female cyborg assassin named Motoko Kusanagi, a.k.a. "the Major." When the news came out last year that Scarlett Johansson was offered 10 million dollars for the role of the Major in the live action remake of GITS, the frustrated fans accused DreamWorks of "whitewashing" the classic Japanimation and turning it into a PG-13 film. While it would be premature to judge a film yet to be released, it appears timely to revisit the core achievement of Oshii's film untranslatable into the Hollywood formula. That is, unlike ultimately heteronormative and humanist sci-fi films produced in Hollywood, such as the Matrix trilogy or Cloud Atlas, GITS defies a Hollywoodization by evoking much bafflement in relation to its queer, posthuman characters and settings. This essay homes in on Major Kusanagi's body in order to update prior criticism from the perspectives of posthumanism and queer theory. If the Major's voluptuous cyborg body has been read as a liberating or as a commodified feminine body, latest critical work of posthumanism and queer theory causes us to move beyond the moralistic binaries of human/non-human and male/female. This deconstruction of binaries leads to a radical rethinking of "reality" and "identity" in an image-saturated, hypermediated age. Viewed from this perspective, Major Kusanagi's body can be better understood less as a reflection of "real" women than as an embodiment of our anxieties on the loss of self and interiority in the SNS-dominated society. As is warned by many posthumanist and queer critics, queer and posthuman components are too often used to reinforce the human. I argue that the Major's hybrid body is neither a mere amalgam of human and machine nor a superficial postmodern blurring of boundaries. Rather, the compelling combination of individuality, animality, and technology embodied in the Major redefines the human as always, already posthuman. This ethical act of revision-its shifting focus from oppressive humanism to a queer coexistence-evinces the lasting power of GITS.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.429-462
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• 2019

This paper argues how the concept of melodrama can be articulated with the Affect Theory and Posthumanism in relation to animal or environment representation which have emerged as the new topics of the recent era. The argument will be made through the discussion of Agustin Zarzosa's book, Refiguring Melodrama in Film and Television: Captitve Affects, Elastic Sufferings, Vicarious Objects. Using a genealogical approach, the book revisits the notion of mode, affect, suffering (hysteria), and excess which have been dealt with in the existing studies of melodrama. In chapter one, he broadens the concept of melodrama as a mode into the means of redistribution of suffering across the whole society in the mechanism of the duo of evil and virtue. It is the opposition of Brooks's argument in which melodrama functions as the means of proving the distinction between evil and virtue. Chapter two focuses on the fact that melodrama is an elastic system of specification rather than a system of signification, with the perspective of Deleuzian metaphysics. Through the analysis of Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1959), this chapter pays attention to an 'affect' generated by the encounters between the bodies and the Mise-en-Scène as a flow not of a meaning but of an affect. Chapter three argues that melodrama should reveal an unloved (woman's) suffering, opposing the discussion on the role of melodrama as the recovery of moral order. Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995), dealing with female suffering caused by the industrial and social environment, elaborates on the arguments on melodrama in relation to female hysteria with ecocritical standpoints. The rest of the two chapters discusses the role of melodrama for the limitation and extension of the notion of the human through 'animal' and 'posthuman' melodrama. It argues that the concept of melodrama as 'excess' and 'sacrifice' blurs the boundary between human and inhuman. In summary, although the author Zarzosa partly agrees with Peter Brook's notion of mode, affect and sufferings,he elaborates the concept of melodrama, by articulating philosophical arguments such as Deleuzianism, feminism, and posthumanism (Akira Lippit and Carry Wolf) with the melodrama. Thefore, Zarzosa challenges the concepts of melodrama led by Brooks, which had been canonical in the field.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.110-123
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• 2007

This study aims at analyzing the characteristics and the mode of deconstructionism expressed in fashion design centering on review of literatures and precedent researches. Through the review of previous studies and various articles, three major features with regard to deconstructionism were found: indeterminacy of meaning, decentralization, and inter -textuality. In fashion, the feature of indeterminacy of meaning expressed by non formula way such as unfinished, layering, obi or straight line cutting and it was divided into unstructured and unorganized factors. The feature of decentralization expressed by disorganization of sex, race, culture and humanism such as trans-gender, third world costume, sub-culture, posthumanism. Last, the feature of inter-textuality expressed by employing the fashion texts more than two simultaneously such as mixture of unmatched or unusual various clothing items, fabrics, patterns and styles. Non formality features in fahsion which divided into unstructured and unconstructed factors. The decentering of meaning means that disorganized the existing concepts of sex, race, culture and humanism features in fashion which divided into cross-gender, subculture, and post-humanism. Lastly, the feature of inter-textuality means that employed the fashion text more than two which is classified into factors of mixing mode and mixed styles. Unstructured factors were expressed by destroying the design principles such as balance, harmony and unit in fashion. Unconstructed factors were expressed by ignoring the basic costume structures and components in fashion. Cross-gender was expressed by manish and duality style in fashion and 3rd world costume was expressed by folk costume style. Anti fashion was expressed by anti aesthetics in fashion such as kitch, punk, and hippie styles. Post-human was expressed by futurism and the 4th Sex style in fashion. Mixing mode were expressed by mixture of item, and unmatched materials and pattern in fashion. Mixture of style were expressed by mixture of pastiche expression of various styles.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.1481-1488
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• 2018

Recently, the terms of the fourth industrial revolution, deep running, artificial intelligence, post-human, and trans-human are frequently heard. These terms suggest that the rapid development of science and technology will make the future different from the present. However, rather than giving priority to striking a different future phenomenon, I think it is first of all to understand what kind of future technology or phenomenon is in the present stage. Therefore, in this study, in particular, the actual cases of linking or combining science and technology to the human body are increasing. So if you want to call this human being what kind of characteristics you have. To do this, I first looked at the meaning of trance, transformative, and trans humanism. Next, I looked at the relationship between science and technology and transhumanism. Next, we analyzed four transformative characteristics in the film Elysium and examined how it affects the understanding of transhumanism. This process will be the starting point for understanding post-human and post-humanism in the future.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.35
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• pp.7-34
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• 2014

This essay explores how Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony and Storyteller encourage human's sympathetic relationship with the nonhuman animal-Other, paying attention to her posthumanist voices against anthropocentric mistreatment of animals which is inseparable from white Americans' environmental and racio-ethnic subjugation of nature and Natives in the colonialist history of the United States. As a way of dissolving the problematic anthropocentrism and embracing the animal-Other as a fellow creature, Silko employs and transforms Native American oral tradition in her own idiosyncratic posthumanist storytelling. In order to highlight the ethico-political examination of the animal issue in her storytelling, this essay refers to contemporary posthumanist thinkers such as Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, and Gilles Deleuze who are all in their own ways critically engaged with Western metaphysical anthropocentrism. Arguably, in a similar vein with the posthumanist critics, Silko disrupts the mischievous hierarchical opposition of humans/animals that have directly or obliquely warranted violence against the animal-Other. In order to demonstrate Silko's ethico-politicality concerning the animal issue, this essay inquires her critical perception of humans' misunderstanding (or misbehavior) toward animals in terms of the suffering and death of animals. Besides, Silko's posthumanist storytelling of the animal's gaze (as Derrida notes as an event of revealing human aporia and vulnerability) and "in-between" (as a reification of crossing the boundary of humans/animals) is discussed with the exemplification of Tayo's encounter with a mountain lion and a bear-man Shush. The posthumanist approach to thinking about the animal-Other in Ceremony and Storyteller would shed light on the ethico-political significances of Silko's storytelling in our time in peril of losing the tie between humans and nonhuman animals.