Da corpo a corpo. Sguardi di fantascientiste sulle trasformazioni dell’umano

Abstract

When does a human body cease to be human? And what is the limit (assuming that there is a limit, and that it is measurable) between what is human and what is not (not yet or no longer)? Does the female gaze on bodies transformed through cyborg grafts and connected via neural networks differ from the male gaze?

This contribution aims to answer this and other questions, tracing a path starting from the British Mary Shelley and the Creature (not monster) she conceived, touching upon exemplary texts by great science fiction writers of the 20th century Catherine Moore and James Tiptree Jr. alias Alice Sheldon, and again, between science fiction and visionary feminism, by Pat Cadigan (all American authors), to reach the new century arriving at the works of women who navigate and rejuvenate genres such as the Italian Francesca Cavallero.