Understanding the Future Posthumanities: An Analytical Study of William Gibson’s Spook Country

Abstract

William Gibson, who introduced the term ‘cyberpunk’ is a distinguished American Canadian science fiction writer. Gibson’s Spook Country, published in 2007, is a popular science fiction political thriller. With three interesting and intersecting plots, the novel is set against the background of the post-September 11, 2001 incident. Gibson portrays a future society that is beyond human capabilities using philosophical and imaginative posthumanist concepts such as Post-Humanism, Post-Anthropocentrism, and Post-Dualism intertwined with science fiction themes like interactive media, cyberspace, locative art, espionage and the art of virtual reality. This article analyzes the novel Spook Country based on Synthetic Theoretical Posthumanism, a typology framed by Matthew E. Gladden. The Posthuman theorists use philosophy and science fiction as a resource to re-examine the notion of “human” in a future techno cultural context. In addition, this study uses the theoretical framework of Francesca Ferrando, Rosi Braidotti, and other posthumanist theorists to substantiate how the novel represents future posthumanities.