By juxtaposing the science fiction narratives of Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves and Nicola Griffith’s Ammonite, this study analyzes two modes of evolutionary paradigms that deconstruct “reprosexuality,” or the linear link between heterosexuality and reproduction. The novels are compared to show how nature–culture entanglements, formed both biophysically and socially, open the body to natural and synthetic gestation, thereby foregrounding non-normative and receptive forms of intimacy with nonhuman alterities such as microbes and techno-apparatuses (Malone 1). Through Ammonite, the study explores how “sympoietic” or “becoming-with” microbial entities can create an “unlicensed somatic exchange” by recombining human DNA with viral matter. The novel’s sexual and reproductive mechanisms are examined through the lens of posthuman ecological ethics to demonstrate how a “cross-species” sexuate specificity can be constituted in contrast to uniform models of sexual difference. The study identifies a “microbial-gestational” pattern that diffracts the amniotic womb into a trans-subjective web of microbial–maternal–fetal chimera, whose agential intra-actions unfold through complex processes such as parthenogenesis. By contrast, the rhetoric of Seveneves highlights the techno-biopolitical prospect of intentionally redesigning or enhancing evolutionary phenomena by situating germline cells in an in vitro environment and isolating them as immortal cell lines. The novel illustrates how the concept of “designer babies” reifies reproductive futurity through the active selection of genetic markers, and how the method of automictic parthenogenesis subverts phallocentric ideals of reproduction by eliminating the genetic contribution of the male.

Authors:
Reshma Sanil, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India

About the Presenter(s)
Reshma Sanil is a senior PhD scholar. Her interests include reading Science Fiction novels and innovative discoveries relating to biomolecular and biotechnological fields. Her current projects include writing research papers related to postgenomics.

Connect on Linkedin
http://linkedin.com/in/reshma-sanil-7aa691244

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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