© Copyright 2012 Edmond Y. Chang Technoqueer: Re/Con/Figuring Posthuman Narratives Edmond Y. Chang A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2012 Reading Committee: Thomas Foster, Chair Kate Cummings Eva Cherniavsky Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Department of English ii In presenting this dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the doctoral degree at the University of Washington, I agree that the Library shall make its copies freely available for inspection. I further agree that extensive copying of the dissertation is allowable only for scholarly purposes, consistent with “fair use” as prescribed in the U.S. Copyright Law. Requests for copying or reproduction of this dissertation may be referred to ProQuest Information and Learning, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346, 1-800-521- 0600, to whom the author has granted “the right to reproduce and sell (a) copies of the manuscript in microform and/or (b) printed copies of the manuscript made from microform.” Signature _____________________________ Date _________________________________ iii University of Washington ABSTRACT Technoqueer: Re/Con/Figuring Posthuman Narratives Edmond Y. Chang Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Thomas Foster Department of English This dissertation addresses the intersections of queer and technology to rethink the posthuman as raced, gendered, and queered as co-constituted through and by technology. Given technoculture’s appropriation of queerness as yet another identity category subject to individualist manipulation and the near invisibility or silence of technology in queer theory, this dissertation theorizes the “technoqueer,” building on the pioneering work of Donna Haraway’s cyborg, Roseanne Allucquere Stone definition of the technosocial subject, Nina Wakeford’s cyberqueer, Lisa Nakamura’s cybertype, and N. Katherine Hayles on the posthuman. This project looks at cyberspace and bodyhacking technologies—real or imagined—to show how technology is never neutral or simply a tool. On the one hand, the metaphor of cyberspace and the reality of online “synthetic worlds” rely on ideologies of configurable identities, disembodiment, and freedom of exploration and expression. On the other hand, bodyhacking or the ability to shape, manipulate, enhance, and transform the body offers similar promises of escaping biological destiny, of self-improvement and self- fashioning, and possessive individuality. Given the popular narratives of technologies like the Internet, bionics, and gamification as liberating humanity from the prison of the “meat,” iv this dissertation deploys a comparative study of literature, video games, and body modification technologies in order to articulate alternative readings of technologically- mediated race, gender, and sexuality foreclosed or overlooked by contemporary posthumanism. Looking to figures like Alan Turing or the Bionic Woman and looking at texts like William Gibson’s Neuromancer, George Schuyler’s Black No More, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, Irrational Games’s Bioshock, and Zynga’s Facebook game Frontierville, this project demonstrates the ways technology is imbricated with race, gender, and sexuality and how liberation from one set of embodiments or identities often means the stabilization or policing of others. The technoqueer then reveals and challenges the structures of the near ubiquity of technological mediation and penetration into twenty-first century life—the technonormative matrix—in order to theorize alternative futurities and embrace technoqueer worldmaking. It is through these technoqueer utopias that both queer theory and technoculture theory can continue to revitalize the intersectional formation of sex, gender, sexuality, race, and technology. v DEDICATION To my mother, father, and sister vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents........................................................................................................................i List of Figures............................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................iv Chapter One: The Technoqueer Manifesto................................................................................1 Chapter Two: Queering Cyberspace........................................................................................75 Chapter Three: Body Hacking Race, Gender, and Sexuality.................................................126 Chapter Four: The Seductions of Gamification.....................................................................180 Coda: Technoqueer Utopias...................................................................................................231 Works Consulted....................................................................................................................239 i LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Photo. Bradley Manning and “Equality” Poster......................................................59 Figure 2: Photo. Webcam Photo of Bradley Manning............................................................61 Figure 3: Photo. President Barack Obama and Army Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry..................65 Figure 4: Photo. President Obama Shakes Petry's Prosthetic Hand.......................................66 Figure 5: Game Still. Bioshock. Statue of Andrew Ryan and Banner.................................119 Figure 6: Game Still. Bioshock. Sander Cohen....................................................................121 Figure 7: Game Still. FrontierVille. Loading Screen Splash Page......................................188 Figure 8: Game Still. FrontierVille. A Letter from Your Spouse-to-Be.............................190 Figure 9: Game Still. FrontierVille. Spouse Customization Screen....................................193 Figure 10: Game Still. FrontierVille. Spouse Customization Screen..................................193 Figure 11: Game Still. FrontierVille. Hank Proposes to Fanny..........................................194 Figure 12: Game Still. FrontierVille. Who Will Start a Romance: Hank and Fanny?........195 Figure 13: Game Still. FrontierVille. Who Will Start a Romance: Hank and Bess?..........196 Figure 14: Game Still. FrontierVille. Who Will Start a Romance: Fanny and Bess?.........196 Figure 15: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Human Male Warrior.......................................203 Figure 16: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Human Female Priest.......................................203 Figure 17: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Dwarf Male Paladin.........................................204 Figure 18: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Gnome Female Warlock..................................204 Figure 19: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Night Elf Male Rogue......................................205 Figure 20: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Night Elf Female Druid...................................206 Figure 21: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Draenei Female Shaman..................................207 Figure 22: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Troll Male Hunter............................................208 ii Figure 23: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Blood Elf Male Hunter....................................208 Figure 24: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Undead Male Mage.........................................209 Figure 25: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Tauren Female Druid.......................................209 Figure 26: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Human Male Avatar with Darkest Skin..........212 Figure 27: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Weaponmaster Woo Ping................................217 Figure 28: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Caregiver Ophera Windfury............................217 Figure 29: Game Still. World of Warcraft. Giving a Love Token.......................................223 Figure 30: Game Still. FrontierVille. Queer Family Portrait...............................................226 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation chair, Thomas Foster, who gave me the right chemistry of guidance and freedom to help me find my voice and perspectives as a scholar and writer. I would like to thank my other committee members Kate Cummings and Eva Cherniavsky for their invaluable questions, advice, and insight. I would also like to thank the Department of English at the University of Washington for their support and belief in me, in particular Gary Handwerk, Brian Reed, and Kathy Mork. Moreover, thanks to the Department of Comparative History of Ideas and Phillip Thurtle for the opportunities to grow my scholarship and pedagogy. I would like to thank Kathleen Woodward and the Simpson Center for the Humanities for their sponsorship of my academic and professional pursuits. Thanks are due as well to the Department of English at the University of Maryland who started me on this heroic journey, specifically Michael Olmert, Jack Russell, Kandice Chuh, Verlyn Flieger, Linda Coleman, Marilee Lindemann, and Theresa DiPaolo. Finally and most importantly, thank you to my family, my partner, Greg, and my friends for their continued love, understanding, conviviality, and support. Special thanks to Tim Welsh, Jane Lee, grad pub at the College Inn, the Critical Gaming Project, the Keywords for Video Game Studies graduate interest group, my Tellings table past and present,