THE POLITICS OF BECOMING: BREAKING THE IDENTITY GROUND OF CYBORGS/POSTHUMANS AND HUMANS

Abstract

Although the fixity of identity constitutes a basis for theory in Identity Politics, the debate on identity as pre-political seems to find its limits when confronted with discourses in feminism, technology and ecological thought. This paper will explore a vision of identity that enhances the way we penetrate political conflicts, by exploring visions of humanity inspired by science fiction (SF). I believe that exploring figures and creatures in Fiction/SF makes it possible to interrogate theoretical categories of identity; that is, these forms of art enhance our imagination, contest boundaries/categories, transform our understanding and perceptions of theworld/realities/subjectivities, and, more specifically, foster how we enter and conceptualize political conflicts and concepts. In this piece, my aim is to consider illustrationsof humanness as depicted in Mamoru Oshii’s film Ghost in the shell (1995). Indeed, SF problematizes and embraces a dynamic vision of humanity where body and mind are intermeshed. Moreover, when technology stains our conception of a pure humanity – destroying the human capacity to reproduce and to die – we shall see that the protagonist in Ghost in the shell (Heretofore Ghosts) seems to discover the potential to mingle both cyborgs/technology and humanness.