| This research project aims at studying the genre of cyberpunk literature and comparing this genre with scientific theories of technological developments such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence, bodily implants and genetic manipulation. Cyberpunk novels are influenced by the contemporary developments in science and they often display a futuristic vision of new technologies. The cross-reference between science and cyberpunk is however more complex than a one-way model of influence. One can also argue that cyberpunk exercises influence on technology and the language and metaphors used in science. Therefore this project will on the one hand focus on the representation of the technological, gendered, body in cyberpunk novels. On the other hand it will investigate if and how 'popular' or general discourses on information technology, virtual technology and artificial intelligence echo the language and metaphors used in the cyberpunk novels to describe the technological, gendered, body. |
