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Simians, Cyborgs and Women 1991 Complementary Texts N.
Katherine Hayles (Writing Machines) Jay David Bolter & Richard Grusin Keywords Copyright © 2005-2007 Isabel Pedersen |
Simians, Cyborgs, and Women is a classic text of the
“Cyborg” genre. Through her famous essay, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science,
Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” Haraway introduces
the idea of the cyborg myth and the cyborg identity as a tactic for social
change in the postmodern world. Drawing on the notion of machine/organism
hybridity, Haraway conceptualizes a world where the fictions that bind women
and visible minorities will be replaced by the myth of the cyborg. The cyborg
is neither biological determined nor is it bound to myths of the Western
world (i.e., religious, historical, social, mythological) which fetter the
subject’s ability to enact change. The subject exists within the
context of technology; technology is never simply a tool. In this sense,
Haraway provides a unique method of characterizing identity in a networked,
electronic environment. |