This week I was struggling with the two core texts by Haraway and Hayles. I’ve been reading some of the blogs of other people in this course and this has helped me get my head round the ideas and think about what they mean for me.  I did find the texts very tough reading and part of me doesn’t really like the ideas they outline very much. (Part of me… I must be getting post-human).

I’m not sure I really like the metaphor of the cyborg. This is too much machine and too little human for me. Maybe I’m not immersed enough in technology, but I really value everything to do with real life far more than anything virtual. To me machines are there purely to help me do my work, stay in touch with people, learn better, etc. I’ve also never really got into science fiction. I can understand what Haraway is getting at to some extent and I agree that the philosophical idea of crossing boundaries of race and gender can be fascinating. As a “language person” however, I am constantly working with cultural ideas and heritage and I can’t imagine a scenario where this will not be important to people.

However, I am interested in the idea which both Hayles and Haraway have described of having a collective identity (whether you want to call this posthuman or cyborg). I know this is an idea which is very strongly linked to postmodernism (though I’m sure this idea has been around for a lot longer,  but maybe it is becoming more important in this era).  I think what is new in this text is that Hayles is using this concept to explain what happens in virtual environments and she is arguing that virtuality is just one facette of our identity, but still an embodied one. But even without any connection to machines it’s interesting to acknowledge how different we are in various surroundings and roles. Again, as a language teacher this is an important thought as learning a new language is linked to a new role and new outlooks in life. Language itself and the way we teach and learn it is also made up of so many different parts. It can be split up into reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar, and in some ways it has to come together again, but with a different emphasis for every person and in every act of communication. There is a lot to think about here and I’d quite like to write my final essay on something to do with language and learning in the posthuman era.

Haraway, D. (2000). A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late 20th Century. in D Bell and A Kennedy, The Cybercultures Reader. Routledge.

Hayles, N.K. (1999). Toward embodied virtuality, chapter 1 of How we became posthuman: virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature and informatics. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. pp1-25