과학소설 『눈먼 시계공』을 통해 본 테크노 혼종성과 포스트휴먼 위기 징후

Abstract

The term “hybridity” had regeneratively been conceptualized in postcolonial studies, cultural studies, and the discourse of the African diaspora. I attempt to bring the complex notion of hybridity to the mainstream discourse about technoscience and posthumanity. For the purpose of building a critical bridge to connect the minority criticism and a mainstream field of discourse, I draw on Brian Massumi and Bruno Latour. Paying attention to Massumi’s persistent sense of symbiotic activities between science and philosophy and Latour’s rigorous observation of the sociotechnical mediation of humans and nonhumans, I contend that hybridity plays a further defining role in the making of a variety of collectives in the posthuman condition. With the help of those scholars’ theoretical insight, I analyze a Korean scientific novel, The Blind Watchmaker. Particularly focusing on the problematics of its techno-hybrid characterization, I discuss the ways in which techno-hybrid subjects face, negotiate, and succumb to the posthuman crisis.