Technology and Identity in Young Adult Fiction: The Posthuman Subject by Victoria Flanagan (review)

Despite technology's increasing presence in young people's daily lives, children's and young adult literature has been slow to move past dystopian critiques and fraught warnings of the dangers of technological change. In her book Technology and Identity: The Posthuman Subject, Victoria Flanagan looks at a growing corpus of work that pushes past technophobia and instead provides new, empowering perspectives on subjectivity in the digital age. Using posthumanism to interrogate these texts, Flanagan deftly proves not only that YA literature provides new models for adolescent agency in a world of technological change, but also that it is an ideal site in which to do so.

Flanagan's book is divided into six chapters, each of which offers a clear thesis at the outset, provides helpful theoretical context, and analyzes convincing textual evidence. Flanagan is particularly adept at situating her work in a larger critical conversation and articulating why her own work is important, and she does this especially well in her first chapter, "Posthumanism in Young Adult Fiction." She positions her definition of posthumanism (which she admits is a term with many possible definitions) in relation to theoretical concepts of humanism, transhumanism, and anti-humanism, noting definitional intersections and divergences. For Flanagan, who is careful to note the influential work of such critics as Donna Haraway, N. Katherine Hayles, Pramod Nayar, and Cary Wolfe, posthumanism is "a reconceptualization and expansion of the human subject" (11), allowing for new perspectives on subjectivity that transcend the liberal humanist model. Liberal humanism, while pervasive, is limited in that it privileges an essential and universal human nature that doesn't account for social and cultural influence. Flanagan follows her definitions with an examination of critical work on posthumanism in children's and YA literature, claiming that "much of this critical engagement offers a limited view of how posthumanism might assist in the interpretation of children's fiction" (22), as it frequently reasserts humanist values. She cites previous research by Elaine Ostry, whose 2004 work explored the way advances in technology such as cloning posited new ways of being to young readers. While Flanagan credits Ostry for bringing the term "posthuman" into conversation with children's and young adult literature, she critiques Ostry's work as "implicitly linked to humanist paradigms of selfhood" (24). Flanagan also highlights Noga Applebaum's 2010 work on cloning in science fiction for young readers, which pointed out the technophobia inherent in the way the clones align with liberal humanism. Flanagan claims that Applebaum's work offers a more generous view of posthumanism but is limited in scope. She also cites work by Kerry Mallan, Richard Gooding, and Farah Mendlesohn, among others, as influential in her thinking about posthumanism, science fiction, and children's literature, noting carefully what she intends to expand upon and what she intends to counter. Indeed, Flanagan is very clear about her project, which will provide an analysis of posthumanism in YA lit by using a wide range of texts and exploring the way technology in these works redresses traditional concepts of humanity. In this sense, chapter 1 is fruitful both for its informative yet succinct definition of posthumanism and its literature review of relevant works.

Flanagan uses this strategy of noting work that exists, critiquing it, and positing a new perspective throughout the rest of the book. Almost every chapter provides a sort of source text—a work of fiction that represents the old standard of technophobia, wherein technology is dangerous to human selfhood, or that interpellates the liberal humanist concept that there is one essential way to achieve subjectivity and agency. Following her critique of the source text, Flanagan provides numerous examples of contemporary works that provide new perspectives of human experience.

Her chapters are all distinct from one another in their subject matter, but they carry through them an important thread of how posthumanism encourages what Flanagan calls "a rethinking...