Scott Jeffery
I am interested in the development of the notion of the post-human. In my thesis I take a rhizomatic approach to mapping the transformation of the concept of the post-human in several discursive realms in philosophy, critical theory, in mythology and religion, in material techno-scientific practices and in the superhero comic book, where each of these realms converge. I argue that the figure of the post-human, and the transformations it engenders, centers on the body; and that the superhero comic can be seen as a post-human body genre.
My thesis focuses on four post-human body-types-the grotesque body, the perfect body, the cosmic body, and the military- industrial body, and undertakes a rhizomatic cultural history of these forms.
This cultural-historic approach is complimented by reference to historical comic reading communities and a series of qualitative interviews with contemporary readers of superhero comics that seek to inquire in what ways, if at all, superhero comics have figured in their views on human technological enhancement and the possibility of a 'post-human future'.
My thesis focuses on four post-human body-types-the grotesque body, the perfect body, the cosmic body, and the military- industrial body, and undertakes a rhizomatic cultural history of these forms.
This cultural-historic approach is complimented by reference to historical comic reading communities and a series of qualitative interviews with contemporary readers of superhero comics that seek to inquire in what ways, if at all, superhero comics have figured in their views on human technological enhancement and the possibility of a 'post-human future'.
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Papers by Scott Jeffery
In this paper I present some preliminary work from my thesis on the posthuman body in superhero comics. It begins with a brief overview of the discourse of posthumanism, how it is used in three different but overlapping realms- philosophy/critical theory, techno-scientific practice, and speculative fiction. For instance the 1938 debut of Superman can be read as part of a wider discourse of the posthuman that takes in popularised Nietzschean ideas and the eugenics movement as a figuration of posthuman corporeality that my thesis ironically dubs, “the Perfect Body”. This paper however deals with Silver Age comics and the “psychedelic” or “Cosmic Body”. It first addresses how the nascent counterculture of the early sixties adopted Marvel comics. The increased use of psychedelic drugs by certain sections of this movement helped foster a vision of a psychedelically evolved post-humanity marked by a form of ‘cosmic consciousness’. Such groups ‘poached‘ the imagery of superheroes as evolutionary blueprints for this transformation as well as adopting terms like freak and mutant to designate their new posthuman identity. A mutual influence, psychedelic imagery found its way into the comics. Intuitively, in the cases of Ditko and Kirby, but apparently quite deliberately by the time of Engelhart‘s Dr. Strange and Starlin‘s Warlock and Captain Marvel in the early seventies. The paper then goes on to consider the superhero as shamanic figure, with particular reference to its influence on the Human Potential Movement that grew out of the counterculture. The paper concludes by discussing how this confluence of mysticism and science, or the modern and pre-modern, can still be found in the superhero comic book, and how the psychedelic posthuman body invites fresh consideration of the lines that separate the body from the mind, reason from irrationality, drugs from technology and superhero fictions from reality.
In this paper I present some preliminary work from my thesis on the posthuman body in superhero comics. It begins with a brief overview of the discourse of posthumanism, how it is used in three different but overlapping realms- philosophy/critical theory, techno-scientific practice, and speculative fiction. For instance the 1938 debut of Superman can be read as part of a wider discourse of the posthuman that takes in popularised Nietzschean ideas and the eugenics movement as a figuration of posthuman corporeality that my thesis ironically dubs, “the Perfect Body”. This paper however deals with Silver Age comics and the “psychedelic” or “Cosmic Body”. It first addresses how the nascent counterculture of the early sixties adopted Marvel comics. The increased use of psychedelic drugs by certain sections of this movement helped foster a vision of a psychedelically evolved post-humanity marked by a form of ‘cosmic consciousness’. Such groups ‘poached‘ the imagery of superheroes as evolutionary blueprints for this transformation as well as adopting terms like freak and mutant to designate their new posthuman identity. A mutual influence, psychedelic imagery found its way into the comics. Intuitively, in the cases of Ditko and Kirby, but apparently quite deliberately by the time of Engelhart‘s Dr. Strange and Starlin‘s Warlock and Captain Marvel in the early seventies. The paper then goes on to consider the superhero as shamanic figure, with particular reference to its influence on the Human Potential Movement that grew out of the counterculture. The paper concludes by discussing how this confluence of mysticism and science, or the modern and pre-modern, can still be found in the superhero comic book, and how the psychedelic posthuman body invites fresh consideration of the lines that separate the body from the mind, reason from irrationality, drugs from technology and superhero fictions from reality.