In search of a center: Aporias of the prosthetic God

Abstract

The article deals with the capability and productivity of literature to visualise and discuss chances and problems arising from future developments and constellations using the example of trans- or posthumanism as one of the most influental ideological concepts of our time. It is shown how this seemingly scientific idea has been imagined as well as deconstructed in literary texts a long time before transhumanism solidified as an ideology. Literary texts allow to play things through to an end — or another, and thereby highly specialised scientific topics become open to a broader discussion outside the ivory tower: Beginning with H. von Kleist’s famous essay on “The Puppet Theatre” (1810), that reflects upon the question of human consciousness using the example of dancing prosthesis carriers, it is also demonstrated, that literary texts can defamiliarize our common perception of everyday world to set us thinking about it, be it Goethe’s “Faust II” with its homunculus episode, Marinettis novel “Mafarka the Futurist” (1909) and its flying artificial man, E. Jünger’s extensive essay “The Worker” (1932) on modern serialisation, M. Houellebecq’s novel “Possibility of an Island” (2005) with a posthuman view on transhumanistic developments or G. Bear’s SF novel “Blood Music” (1985), imagining a completely posthuman world.