Ce travail s’attache à étudier les figures de la posthumanité en s’appuyant sur un corpus transmédial et transnational et à répondre à deux questions principales : Peut-on, au travers de la figure du posthumain, percer à jour les désirs et les angoisses de l'homme de ce millénaire encore naissant ? Comment l'expérience de pensée posthumaine, mise en mouvement par la fiction, questionne-t-elle la notion même d'humanité ? Dans un premier temps, il met en relief les liens existant entre la posthumanité et ce territoire homogène et récurrent dans le corpus, qu’on nommera à la suite d'Antonio Negri et Michael Hardt, l’Empire. Dans un second temps il s’intéresse à la plasticité du corps et de l’esprit posthumains, à la façon dont leurs multiples avatars se déploient à travers le temps ainsi qu’aux raisons qui sous-tendent cette extrême plasticité. Enfin, dans un dernier mouvement, il s’attelle à montrer que, loin de s’inscrire dans un imaginaire radicalement nouveau, le post-humain procède en fait du réagencement ou de la reconfiguration d’un imaginaire anthropologique déjà bien ancré dans l’inconscient collectif. / This work focus on the study of the posthuman figures. It is based on a transmedial and transnational corpus. It seeks to answer two key questions : can we expose, through the posthuman figure, the desires and the anguishes of this still rising millennium’s man ? How the posthuman thought experiment, set into motion by the fiction, challenge the very concept of humanity ? As a first step, this work emphasizes on the links that exist between posthumanity and this homogeneous and reccuring, in our fictions, territory that Antonio Negri and Micharl Hardt call Empire. Then, it’s interested in the plasticity of the posthuman bodies and minds, in the way that their numerous avatars expand through time as well as the reasons that underlie this extreme plasticity. Lastly, he tries to show that the posthuman do not fall into a dramatic new imagination, but that it proceeds, in fact, of the reordering or the reconfiguration of a anthropological imagination already well rooted in the collective unconscious.

Esta tese de doutorado analisa dois romances do escritor Norte-Americano Robert Coover como exemplos de escrita hipertextual e de hiperficção no suporte do livro de papel. A complexidade dos romances John's Wife e The Adventures of Lucky Pierre integra os elementos culturais característicos da atual fase do capitalismo e as práticas tecnologizadas que vêm forjando uma subjetividade diferente na escrita e leitura hipertextual, a subjetividade pós-humana. Os modelos da complexidade dos romances derivam do conceito de atratores estranhos da Teoria do Caos e de rizoma da Nomadologia. As transformações no grau de corporeidade dos personagens estabelecem o plano em que se discute a turbulência e a pós-humanidade. As noções de padrões dinâmicos e atratores estranhos e os conceitos do Corpo sem Órgãos e do Rizoma são interpretados para se revisar a narratologia e chegar a categorias apropriadas ao estudo dos romances. A leitura exercitada nesta tese põe em prática a proposta de leitura corpórea de Daniel Punday. As mudanças no grau de materialidade dos personagens são associadas aos estágios de ordem, turbulência e caos na estória, agindo sobre a constituição da subjetividade ao longo do processo de leitura. A inscrição dos planos de consistência que Coover realiza para se contrapor à linearidade e acomodar as feições hipertextuais nas narrativas em papel descreve a trajetória rizomática dos personagens. O presente estudo leva a concluir que a narrativa hoje se constitui antes como um regime numa relação rizomática com outros regimes na prática cultural do que como forma e gênero predominantemente literários. Também se conclui que a subjetividade pós-humana emerge alinhada a uma identidade de classe que tem nos romances hipertextuais a sua forma literária predileta. / This doctoral dissertation analyzes two novels by the American novelist Robert Coover as examples of hypertextual writing on the book bound page, as tokens of hyperfiction. The complexity displayed in the novels, John's Wife and The Adventures of Lucky Pierre, integrates the cultural elements that characterize the contemporary condition of capitalism and technologized practices that have fostered a different subjectivity evidenced in hypertextual writing and reading, the posthuman subjectivity. The models that account for the complexity of each novel are drawn from the concept of strange attractors in Chaos Theory and from the concept of rhizome in Nomadology. The transformations the characters undergo in the degree of their corporeality sets the plane on which to discuss turbulence and posthumanity. The notions of dynamic patterns and strange attractors, along with the concept of the Body without Organs and Rhizome are interpreted, leading to the revision of narratology and to analytical categories appropriate to the study of the novels. The reading exercised throughout this dissertation enacts Daniel Punday's corporeal reading. The changes in the characters' degree of materiality are associated with the stages of order, turbulence and chaos in the story, bearing on the constitution of subjectivity within and along the reading process. Coover's inscription of planes of consistency to counter linearity and accommodate hypertextual features to the paper supported narratives describes the characters' trajectory as rhizomatic. The study led to the conclusion that narrative today stands more as a regime in a rhizomatic relation with other regimes in cultural practice than as an exclusively literary form and genre. Besides this, posthuman subjectivity emerges as class identity, holding hypertextual novels as their literary form of choice.

In hierdie studie word die manifestasies en ontwikkelings van mens-masjien-verhoudinge in die Afrikaanse poësie vanaf 1990 tot 2012 ondersoek. Relevante uitgangspunte van die fenomenologie, posthumanisme en transhumanisme dien as teoretiese begronding om die gekompliseerde en gevarieerde aard van mens-masjien-verhoudinge in die Afrikaanse poësie te bestudeer. Die studie beoog om deur kwantitatiewe data-analise die manifestasie van tegnologiese terme en verwysings na tegnologiese objekte in Afrikaanse poësie vanaf 1990 tot 2012 te karteer. Hierbenewens word deeglike kwalitatiewe ondersoek gedoen na die verskillende representasies van mens-masjien-verhoudinge in geselekteerde Afrikaanse gedigte. Laastens word rolle en metaforiese betekenisse van digitale tegnologie in posthumane subjekte se belewing op drie tematiese vlakke ondersoek, naamlik liefde en seks, spiritualiteit en die dood. / In this study the different manifestations of human-machine relationships in Afrikaans poetry between 1990 and 2012 are investigated. Relevant viewpoints from the phenomenology, posthumanism and transhumanism form part of the theoretical framework in which the often complicated and varied nature of human-machine relationships are studied. It is the goal of this study to map the manifestations of technological terms and references to technological objects in Afrikaans poetry from 1990 to 2012, utilising quantitative data analysis. Furthermore, the in-depth qualitative analysis will investigate various representations of human-machine relationships in selected Afrikaans poems. The roles and metaphorical meanings of digital technology within the experiences of posthuman subjects are investigated on three thematic levels, namely love and sex, spirituality and death. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / M. A. (Afrikaans)

This dissertation follows an interdisciplinary approach that weaves practice and theory in the disciplines of visual communication, semiotics, cultural studies, linguistics, and new media art. The research methodology is practice-based located within a historical and contemporary context that allows for artistic experimentation and new knowledge to be generated through reflected creative practice This research proposes a context within which society can develop a transcultural means of communication with the objective of gaining completely unambiguous forms of understanding. This research explores the possibility of an open source scaffold for pictorial language that fosters self-enhancing diversity of production models, communication paths, and interactive communities. The dissertation explores research strategies and visual practice in relationship to a proposed global use of a common system of visual semantic decoding that would allow for visual synthesis by individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is proposed that a shared collective knowledge of signs, symbols, and pictographs, supported by the advancement of future communication and information systems, can lead to a visual communication system that will be universally accepted. There is a historic, on-going and collective consensus on the need for a universal language in the near-future posthuman condition. In answer to this need, this dissertation contextualises and goes on to explore a realised case study of a practice-based solution for a universal pictorial communication system. The system may at times seem ambitious and abstract, however, it aims to include all cultures of the world, seeking to establish a direction that identifies and locates cultural similarities over cultural difference. This practice-based enquiry proposes a direction that should maintain coherence, logic, and veracity in order to develop a pictographic communication system that is a valid representation of the human experience in a posthuman condition.

Esta tese de doutorado analisa dois romances do escritor Norte-Americano Robert Coover como exemplos de escrita hipertextual e de hiperficção no suporte do livro de papel. A complexidade dos romances John's Wife e The Adventures of Lucky Pierre integra os elementos culturais característicos da atual fase do capitalismo e as práticas tecnologizadas que vêm forjando uma subjetividade diferente na escrita e leitura hipertextual, a subjetividade pós-humana. Os modelos da complexidade dos romances derivam do conceito de atratores estranhos da Teoria do Caos e de rizoma da Nomadologia. As transformações no grau de corporeidade dos personagens estabelecem o plano em que se discute a turbulência e a pós-humanidade. As noções de padrões dinâmicos e atratores estranhos e os conceitos do Corpo sem Órgãos e do Rizoma são interpretados para se revisar a narratologia e chegar a categorias apropriadas ao estudo dos romances. A leitura exercitada nesta tese põe em prática a proposta de leitura corpórea de Daniel Punday. As mudanças no grau de materialidade dos personagens são associadas aos estágios de ordem, turbulência e caos na estória, agindo sobre a constituição da subjetividade ao longo do processo de leitura. A inscrição dos planos de consistência que Coover realiza para se contrapor à linearidade e acomodar as feições hipertextuais nas narrativas em papel descreve a trajetória rizomática dos personagens. O presente estudo leva a concluir que a narrativa hoje se constitui antes como um regime numa relação rizomática com outros regimes na prática cultural do que como forma e gênero predominantemente literários. Também se conclui que a subjetividade pós-humana emerge alinhada a uma identidade de classe que tem nos romances hipertextuais a sua forma literária predileta. / This doctoral dissertation analyzes two novels by the American novelist Robert Coover as examples of hypertextual writing on the book bound page, as tokens of hyperfiction. The complexity displayed in the novels, John's Wife and The Adventures of Lucky Pierre, integrates the cultural elements that characterize the contemporary condition of capitalism and technologized practices that have fostered a different subjectivity evidenced in hypertextual writing and reading, the posthuman subjectivity. The models that account for the complexity of each novel are drawn from the concept of strange attractors in Chaos Theory and from the concept of rhizome in Nomadology. The transformations the characters undergo in the degree of their corporeality sets the plane on which to discuss turbulence and posthumanity. The notions of dynamic patterns and strange attractors, along with the concept of the Body without Organs and Rhizome are interpreted, leading to the revision of narratology and to analytical categories appropriate to the study of the novels. The reading exercised throughout this dissertation enacts Daniel Punday's corporeal reading. The changes in the characters' degree of materiality are associated with the stages of order, turbulence and chaos in the story, bearing on the constitution of subjectivity within and along the reading process. Coover's inscription of planes of consistency to counter linearity and accommodate hypertextual features to the paper supported narratives describes the characters' trajectory as rhizomatic. The study led to the conclusion that narrative today stands more as a regime in a rhizomatic relation with other regimes in cultural practice than as an exclusively literary form and genre. Besides this, posthuman subjectivity emerges as class identity, holding hypertextual novels as their literary form of choice.

A universal human dignity, conceived as an inherent and inalienable value or worth in all human beings, which ought to be recognised, respected and protected by others, has become one of the most prominent and widely promoted interpretations of human dignity, especially in international human rights law. Yet, it is also one of the most difficult interpretations of human dignity to justify and ground. The fundamental problem rests on how one can justify bestowing an equal high worth to all human lives, whilst also attributing to all human life a worth that is superior to all non-human animal life. To avoid the speciesist charge it seems necessary to provide further reasons, over and above species membership, for why all humans have a unique worth and dignity. However, intrinsic capacities, such as autonomy, intelligence or language use, are too demanding for many humans (including foetuses or the severely cognitively disabled) to meet the required minimum standard, whilst also being obtainable by some non-human animals, regardless of where the level is set. This thesis offers a solution to this problem by turning instead to the significance of the relational ties between individuals or groups that transcend individual capacities and abilities, and consequently does not require that all individuals in the group need meet the minimum required capacity for full moral status. Rather, it is argued that a universal human dignity could be grounded in our social nature, the interconnectedness and interdependence of human life and the morally considerable relationships that can and do arise from it, especially in regards to our shared vulnerability and dependence, and our ability to engage in caring relationships. Care represents the antithesis to the dehumanizing effects of humiliation, and other degrading and dehumanizing acts, and as a relational concept, human dignity is often best realised through our caring relationships. The way that individuals and groups treat each other has a fundamental role in determining both an individual’s sense of self-worth and well-being, as well as their perceived public value and worth. Thus, whilst species membership is not in itself morally fundamental or basic, it often shapes the nature of our social and moral relations. These relational ties between humans, it is argued, distinguish us most clearly from other non-human animals and accord human relationships a special moral significance or dignity.

Esta tese de doutorado analisa dois romances do escritor Norte-Americano Robert Coover como exemplos de escrita hipertextual e de hiperficção no suporte do livro de papel. A complexidade dos romances John's Wife e The Adventures of Lucky Pierre integra os elementos culturais característicos da atual fase do capitalismo e as práticas tecnologizadas que vêm forjando uma subjetividade diferente na escrita e leitura hipertextual, a subjetividade pós-humana. Os modelos da complexidade dos romances derivam do conceito de atratores estranhos da Teoria do Caos e de rizoma da Nomadologia. As transformações no grau de corporeidade dos personagens estabelecem o plano em que se discute a turbulência e a pós-humanidade. As noções de padrões dinâmicos e atratores estranhos e os conceitos do Corpo sem Órgãos e do Rizoma são interpretados para se revisar a narratologia e chegar a categorias apropriadas ao estudo dos romances. A leitura exercitada nesta tese põe em prática a proposta de leitura corpórea de Daniel Punday. As mudanças no grau de materialidade dos personagens são associadas aos estágios de ordem, turbulência e caos na estória, agindo sobre a constituição da subjetividade ao longo do processo de leitura. A inscrição dos planos de consistência que Coover realiza para se contrapor à linearidade e acomodar as feições hipertextuais nas narrativas em papel descreve a trajetória rizomática dos personagens. O presente estudo leva a concluir que a narrativa hoje se constitui antes como um regime numa relação rizomática com outros regimes na prática cultural do que como forma e gênero predominantemente literários. Também se conclui que a subjetividade pós-humana emerge alinhada a uma identidade de classe que tem nos romances hipertextuais a sua forma literária predileta. / This doctoral dissertation analyzes two novels by the American novelist Robert Coover as examples of hypertextual writing on the book bound page, as tokens of hyperfiction. The complexity displayed in the novels, John's Wife and The Adventures of Lucky Pierre, integrates the cultural elements that characterize the contemporary condition of capitalism and technologized practices that have fostered a different subjectivity evidenced in hypertextual writing and reading, the posthuman subjectivity. The models that account for the complexity of each novel are drawn from the concept of strange attractors in Chaos Theory and from the concept of rhizome in Nomadology. The transformations the characters undergo in the degree of their corporeality sets the plane on which to discuss turbulence and posthumanity. The notions of dynamic patterns and strange attractors, along with the concept of the Body without Organs and Rhizome are interpreted, leading to the revision of narratology and to analytical categories appropriate to the study of the novels. The reading exercised throughout this dissertation enacts Daniel Punday's corporeal reading. The changes in the characters' degree of materiality are associated with the stages of order, turbulence and chaos in the story, bearing on the constitution of subjectivity within and along the reading process. Coover's inscription of planes of consistency to counter linearity and accommodate hypertextual features to the paper supported narratives describes the characters' trajectory as rhizomatic. The study led to the conclusion that narrative today stands more as a regime in a rhizomatic relation with other regimes in cultural practice than as an exclusively literary form and genre. Besides this, posthuman subjectivity emerges as class identity, holding hypertextual novels as their literary form of choice.

In his celebrated 2007 novel El mundo, Juan José Millás tells the story of the development of Juanjo, a simulacrum of himself, and describes a series of negative developments that the protagonist faces in his childhood. While much has been written about Millás and the “testimonial realism” of his literary generation, little has been written about the psychological factors that influence his characters. In this paper I analyze Juanjo's development as understood from the gradation of guilt to shame, depression, and later suicidal thoughts. Because Juanjo is not able to find an appropriate mechanism of release for his guilt, he spirals into an ever-increasing psychological distress. Thus, his actions do not become an escape per se from the oppressive forces in Spain; but rather, they are mechanisms of delay caused by the subconscious effects of living under Franco's Spain during the 1950s. Mike Wilson-Reginato's first novel El púgil, published in 2007, mixes intertextual references to music, film, and literature to craft a space for the posthuman identity. The two protagonists of El púgil—Art and his olive-green refrigerator, Hal—combine in a new cyborg-like formation. Unlike the cyborg envisioned by Donna Haraway in “A Cyborg Manifesto,” the mechanical-biological union never takes place at the corporeal level, but their union occurs in a psychological dimension within Art's hallucination. To describe the union of Art and Hal, I use Jacques Lacan's concept of the mirror stage to explain Art's adoption of a perceived superior identity and Jean Baudrillard's study of simulacra to show how this adopted identity is an imagined simulacrum. Thus, the combined image of the two characters creates a cyborg identity that erases the distance between man and machine.

В современном обществе остро встают моральные проблемы, связанные с деятельностью искусственного интеллекта и других интеллектуальных систем. В работе исследуются проблемы, связанные с влиянием сильного искусственного интеллекта на человеческое общество: проблемы определения прав и свобод искусственных когнитивных единиц, взаимодействия человека и постчеловека, а также этические проблемы, потенциально возникающие при создании ИИ. Объектом исследования является философское течение постгуманизм. Предметом исследования является морально-этическая составляющая подраздела постгуманизма под названием эссенциокогнитивизм. Целью является изучение моральных принципов сильного искусственного интеллекта и других интеллектуальных агентов, или, если точнее, постчеловечества, преломленное сквозь призму морально-этических учений прошлого и современности. Методами исследования являются сравнение с уже существующими моральными системами, анализ актуальных морально-нравственных концепций, конструирование (дизайн) и прогнозирование хода развития постгуманистической концепции. Актуальность представленного исследования основана на росте внимания к идеям научно-технического прогресса и технологической сингулярности, актуализации этических проблем слабого искусственного интеллекта, возникновении новых научных открытий, имеющих неоднозначное значение для человечества. В результате исследования установлено, что постчеловечество и ИИ способны положительно повлиять на жизнь человечества, поэтому их возникновение представляется отличной возможностью решить глобальные проблемы, стоящие перед человечеством уже сейчас. / In modern society, the moral problems associated with the activities of artificial intelligence and other intellectual systems are acute. The paper examines the problems associated with the influence of strong artificial intelligence on human society: the problem of determining the rights and freedoms of artificial cognitive units, the interaction between man and postman, as well as ethical problems that potentially arise when creating AI. The object of the research is the philosophical course of posthumanism. The subject of the research is the moral and ethical component of posthumanism subsection called essentiocognitivism. The goal is to study the moral principles of strong artificial intelligence and other intellectual agents, or, more precisely, post-humanity, refracted through the prism of the moral and ethical teachings of the past and present. The research methods are comparison with already existing moral systems, analysis of current moral and ethical concepts, design and forecasting the course of development of the post humanistic concept. The relevance of the presented research is based on the growth of attention to the ideas of scientific and technological progress and technological singularity, the updating of the ethical problems of weak artificial intelligence, the emergence of new scientific discoveries that have ambiguous significance for humanity. As the result of the research it was established that post-humanity and the AI have positively effect on the life of mankind, therefore, their appearance is an excellent opportunity to solve global problems facing humanity now.

Corps rêvés est un recueil graphique sur la corporéalisation, un terme que j’utilise pour désigner l’action d’être ou de se sentir être un corps, dans un contexte où les idées de dépassement du corps et de projection vers le futur sont omniprésentes – ce que je nomme les imaginaires posthumains. Le recueil se présente sous la forme de onze livrets autonomes, mais interreliés et qui peuvent être lus dans l’ordre souhaité, dans un désordre orchestré. Le Préambule, cependant, sert de guide pour l’entrée dans la lecture. Cette thèse invite le·a lecteur·ice à un plongeon en plein milieu des corps, des rêves, du posthumain et d’un long processus de recherche-création par l’écriture et le dessin. Mêlant fiction, autofiction, écrits phénoménologiques, théoriques et dessins (dont une grande partie à l’aquarelle), j’explore différents “je”, assumant une posture située, et autant de manières de faire corps, de se corporéaliser. Je convoque des matières, des corps, humains ou non, vivants ou non, des lieux, des mémoires, des éléments – eau, air, feu, terre – qui m’aident à figurer, discuter, imaginer certaines corporéalisations. Je fais appel à une littérature sur le posthumain, des perspectives post-humanistes, phénoménologiques, mais aussi littéraires et graphiques. Je convoque également des théories de la communication médiatique qui m’aident à concevoir les différents livrets comme des milieux, c’est-à-dire des lieux d’émergence de ma thèse. L’idée de milieu parle autant du processus que du contenu. Les rêves sont aussi des milieux ; ce sont eux qui articulent et donnent matière aux intuitions du recueil. Ils sont matérialisés par les fonds de couleur à l’aquarelle sous-tendant tous les textes et dessins. Ces fonds changent de couleur pour rappeler les différents états de mes rêves, comme les impressions colorées laissées sur la peau d’un poulpe en plein rêve. Je vous invite en eaux troubles, en plein brouillard, dans le récit d’une chercheuse-créatrice qui éprouve son corps le plus souvent par la douleur et la fatigue chronique de la fibromyalgie. Ceci n’est pas central, mais constitue plutôt une trame de fond du recueil, tout comme les imaginaires posthumains. Bien que ma posture puisse être qualifiée de queer et phénoménologique, je prends soin de feinter les (mes) éventuelles tentations de la catégoriser. C’est qu’à la manière des furtifs imaginés par Alain Damasio--ces êtres insaisissables par le regard humain, je tente par tous les moyens de rester en perpétuel mouvement, vivante et, surtout, de ne pas me laisser enfermer par mes propres discours. Enfin, ce recueil graphique s’intéresse aussi à ce que son élaboration fait à mon corps. En faisant advenir certains corps, j’ai transformé le mien profondément, et les traces de cette transformation toujours en cours sont présentes à travers les pages colorées de Corps rêvés. / Corps rêvés is a collection of graphic booklets about corporealization, a term that I am using to express the action of being a body, or feeling oneself being a body, in a context where the ideas of going beyond the body and of projection towards the future are omnipresent (what I call posthuman imaginaries). This collection is presented in the form of eleven interrelated yet self-contained booklets, which can be read in the desired order, an orchestrated disorder. The Preamble, however, serves as a guide for the entrance into the reading. This thesis invites the reader to a dive in the middle of bodies, dreams, the posthuman and a long process of research-creation through writing and drawing. Mixing fiction, autofiction, phenomenological and theoretical writings and drawings (a large part of which is done in watercolor), I explore different «I», assuming situated postures as many ways of making a body, of being corporealized. I call upon different materialities, human and non-human, living and non-living, places, memories, elements - water, air, fire, earth - which help me to figure, discuss, imagine certain corporealizations. I call upon a literature on the posthuman, post-humanist and phenomenological perspectives, but also literary and graphic. I also call upon literature on the media that helps me to conceive the different booklets as media, i.e. places of emergence of my thesis. The idea of medium speaks as much about the process as about the content. Dreams are also media; they are the ones which articulate and give substance to the intuitions of the collection. They are materialized by the watercolors grounding all the texts and drawings. These backgrounds change color to recall the different states of my dreams, like the colored impressions left on the skin of an octopus in full dream. I invite you into troubled waters, in the middle of a fog, into the story of a researcher-creator who experiences her body most often through the chronic pain and fatigue of fibromyalgia. This detail is not central, but it constitutes a sort of background to the collection, as the posthuman imaginaries do. Although my posture can be qualified as queer and phenomenological, I take care to feint the (my) possible temptations to categorize it. Like the furtives imagined by Alain Damasio (these beings in perpetual movement, elusive to the human gaze), I try by all means to remain in movement, alive and, above all, not to let myself be locked up by my own discourses. Finally, this graphic collection is also interested in what its elaboration does to my body. By making certain bodies come to life, I have profoundly transformed mine, and the traces of this ongoing transformation are present throughout the colorful pages of Corps rêvés.