Copyright by Samuel Ellis Ginsburg 2018
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Copyright by Samuel Ellis Ginsburg 2018 The Dissertation Committee for Samuel Ellis Ginsburg Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Cyborg Caribbean: Bodies, Technology, and the Struggle for (Post)Humanity in 21st-Century Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican Science Fiction Committee: Jossianna Arroyo- Martínez, Co-Supervisor César Salgado, Co-Supervisor Luís Cárcamo Huechante John Morán González The Cyborg Caribbean: Bodies, Technology and the Struggle for (Post)Humanity in 21st-Century Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican Science Fiction By Samuel Ellis Ginsburg Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2018 Acknowledgements I would first like to acknowledge my dissertation committee for their support of this project: Co-Supervisors Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez and César Salgado, and committee members Luís Cárcamo Huechante and John Morán Gonazález. Each one has helped shape my academic and personal trajectory. Thank you for not kicking me out of your offices when I proposed this project. So many of my colleagues have provided me with scholarly and emotional support throughout this process: María Cristina Monsalve, Melissa González Contreras, Ginette Eldridge, James Staig, Valeria Rey de Castro, José Ignacio Carvajal, Sam Cannon, Ruth Rubio, Ana Cecilia Calle, Ana Almar, Stephanie Malak, and Min Suk Kim. I’d also like to thank Laura Rodríguez for making everything possible. My family has been incredibly supportive and have believed in me at every step along the way. Thank you, Mom, Dad, and Ruthie. Finally, thank you, Rae, for everything. iv The Cyborg Caribbean: Bodies, Technology and the Struggle for Post(Humanity) in 21st-Century Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican Science Fiction Samuel Ellis Ginsburg, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2018 Supervisors: Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez and César Salgado Abstract: While the genre of science fiction has origins in European and North American colonizing fantasies, many Caribbean authors are now imagining future worlds that highlight or challenge both historical and present oppressions. Many of these texts describe futuristic machines as a way to underline the historical connection between technology and the domination of marginalized bodies. In this project, I examine various 21st-century Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican science fiction texts, looking at how each author manipulates the genre to contest transhumanist, neoliberal narratives that link technological and social progress. Instead, these texts opt for a posthumanist understanding of hypertechnology that seeks the blurred line between body and machine as an opportunity for destabilizing normative binaries while recognizing the ways in which increased technology may amplify the marginalization of certain bodies based on race, gender, sexuality and other factors. As both a historical and literary study, this project seeks to trace the legacies of techno-colonialism and techno-authoritarianism. Each chapter in this dissertation is organized around a specific technological advancement that has challenged the conceptualization of corporeality in the Caribbean: electroshock or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), nuclear weapons, and the digital avatars. In Chapter 1, texts by Pedro Cabiya, Alexandra Pagán-Vélez and Vagabond Beaumont represent ECT abuse in ways that show the manipulation of narratives of v health and science in order to justify state torture. Chapter 2 analyzes works by Rey Emmanuel Andújar, Yasmín Silvia Portales, and Erick Mota to explore the textual nature of nuclear power and the ways that nuclear rhetoric challenges acts of remembrance and mourning. In Chapter 3, texts by Maielis González Fernández, Jorge Enrique Lage, and Rita Indiana Hernández demonstrate the ways social inequalities may be amplified in digital worlds, along with the role that avatars can play in reshaping cyberspace. The goal of this dissertation is to show how Caribbean science fiction can be used to highlight and contest the rhetorical and social legacies of techno-dominance, while mapping out possible resistances for the future. vi Table of Contents List of Figures ........................................................................................................ ix Introduction: New Caribbean Futures ......................................................................1 Technology, Posthumanism, Techno-Dominance, and Cyborgs .........12 Mapping Caribbean Science Fiction Studies .......................................19 Chapter Summaries ..............................................................................25 Chapter 1: Electroconvulsive Therapy, Torture and Excessive Cyborgs ..............30 Electroconvulsive Therapy: Treatment and Punishment .....................31 Dehumanization and Cyborg Resistance .............................................38 La cabeza: Cyborg Bodies and Scientific Experimentation ................42 Horror-REAL: State Torture and Modes of Reproduction ..................49 “Kafka’s Last Laugh”: Nanotechnology and Consumerism ...............57 Conclusions: The Excessive Body and Resistance ..............................62 Chapter 2: Narrative Missiles and the Textual Power of Nuclear Weapons .........66 Missiles, Radiation, and Narratives of Nuclear Colonization ..............67 Nuclear Fictions as Nuclear Weapons .................................................73 “Gameon”: The Environmental and Human Aftermath ......................78 “Las extrañas decisiones de Vladimir Denísovich Jiménez”: Post-Nuclear Biopolitics ...................................................................................85 Trabajo Extra: Nuclear Ghosts ............................................................93 Conclusions: Contesting Textual Power ............................................100 Chapter 3: Disruptive Avatars and the Decoding of Caribbean Cyberspace .......103 Caribbean Avatars ..............................................................................104 Coding and Decoding ........................................................................109 “Slow Motion”: Virtual Autonomy and the Fear of Technology ......114 Carbono 14: una novela del culto: Virtual Irreality and Cyber- Exploitation ...............................................................................123 La mucama de Omicunlé: Technological Escapism and Divine Connections ...............................................................................132 vii Conclusions: Coders and Decoders ...................................................141 Conclusion: Caribbean Realities and Science Fictions ........................................143 Bibliography ........................................................................................................154 viii List of Figures Figure 1: Logo used during loss of video feed during 1972 Miss Universe broadcast .............................................................................................2 Figure 2: Cover of La Borinqueña (2016) ..........................................................4 ix Introduction: New Caribbean Futures The 1972 Miss Universe pageant was taped in the newly opened Cerromar Beach Hotel in Dorado, Puerto Rico, marking the first time that the event was held outside of the continental United States. As an advertisement of US imperialism, the television broadcast represented Puerto Rico as an island-sized beach resort. The pageant, claiming to judge feminine beauty on an intergalactic level, offered the simultaneous objectification and infantilization of the female body; contestants were evaluated based on an abstract model of womanhood, while host Bob Barker addressed them all as “girls.” Just as Barker called Miss Brazil and Miss Australia to the center of the stage to announce the winner, the visual feed from the live broadcast went dark, though the audio remained intact. Pro-independence protestors had attacked the network’s antenna at the moment of the crowning in an attempt to bring attention to the US colonial occupation of Puerto Rico. Barker was unaware of the technical malfunction and continued explaining the winner’s responsibilities to the contestants and the audience. The video remained down as Miss Australia’s name was called, though technicians eventually replaced the black screen with the event’s logo: a silhouette of a woman in an evening gown, surrounded by orbiting planets and stars (fig.1). The cosmic woman could be seen as either menacingly towering over Puerto Rico or triumphantly rising up from it. This science fiction-like image remained on the screens of home audiences for 90 seconds. Just under two minutes after the initial loss of the visual feed, the full broadcast was restored, just as the newly-crowned Miss Universe had finished her victory lap.1 1 The event’s relationship to technology is complicated further by the fact that this moment is now re- watchable via YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STDVJos1_UQ), both immortalizing it and drowning the clip in an anonymous sea of digital media. Most of the comments on the YouTube page complain that Miss Brazil was robbed of her crown, with very few even acknowledging the blackout. 1 Figure 1: Logo used during loss of video feed during 1972 Miss Universe broadcast Pro-independence protestors, later labeled as “terrorists,” used the transmission of the 1972