Prosthetic Imagination: A History of the Novel as Artificial Life

In The Prosthetic Imagination, Peter Boxall argues that we are entering an artificial age and that the novel can guide us in reimagining our relation to our bodies and environments. He shows how the novel has played a central role in forging the bodies we extend ourselves into the world, but also contains forms of life that elude our existing human architectures. These latent conjunctions are preserved in the novel form and offer us images of embodied being that can help us orient ourselves to our new prosthetic condition.

Format: Hardback
Length: 422 pages
Publication date: 03 September 2020
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

In his groundbreaking work, "The Prosthetic Imagination," renowned critic Peter Boxall posits that we are embarking upon an artificial age, wherein our natural bodies are merging with our prosthetic extensions in novel and transformative ways. This transformative era demands a reimagining of our relationship with both our bodies and our surroundings, and Boxall suggests that the novel, as a form, can serve as a guiding light in this imaginative endeavor.

Throughout a diverse array of prose fictions, spanning from Thomas More's "Utopia" to Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake," Boxall demonstrates how the novel has played a pivotal role in shaping the bodies through which we extend ourselves into the world. However, while the novel has contributed to giving our world a human form, it also harbors forms of life that evade our existing human architectures. These latent conjunctions, concealed within the novel's imaginative realm, are preserved in its form and offer us glimpses of embodied existence that can assist us in orienting ourselves to our new prosthetic condition.

Boxall argues that these concealed amalgams of the living and the non-living represent the hidden province of the novel imagination. By exploring these latent connections, the novel provides us with images of embodied being that can help us navigate the complexities of our new prosthetic existence. Through its imaginative lens, the novel offers us a means to reimagine our relationship with our bodies, our environments, and the world around us, enabling us to embrace the transformative possibilities of this artificial age.

Weight: 728g
Dimension: 161 x 236 x 32 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781108836487