Posthuman Elites and Monsters in Science Fiction - Artificial Superhumans and Exploited Cannibals in H.G. Well's The Time Machine, Frank Herbert's Dune and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas

Abstract

This thesis examines the characters of notable works of science fiction such as The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, Dune by Frank Herbert and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell in order to investigate their ‘human-yet-not’ nature from a posthuman perspective. It analyses how in each of these novels the reader is presented with two distinct populations of characters: one to be perceived as the most ‘human’, the other as ‘monstrous’. The former is made up of the ‘elite’, which is seen initially as ‘human’ due to its status according to a traditional humanist perspective, yet is eventually revealed to be in fact posthuman, having attempted to raise itself to a superhuman condition by the use of eugenics but having only obtained a degeneration from the humanist ‘human’ into an hybrid. The latter is composed of those exploited by said elites, marked as monsters for their animal, machine-like or ‘savage’ traits, and especially because of their association with the act of cannibalism, but also because of their adaptation via bioengineering or mutation to the environment of a planet in crisis. Through these characters Wells, Herbert and Mitchell offer not only cautionary tales for the possible future consequence of the issues they criticise in their contemporary society, but also interesting perspectives on what portraying the ‘human’ can mean in such a genre as science fiction, exploring the ambiguities of posthuman hybridity.