American gadgets: cybernetics, consumer electronics, and twentieth-century us fiction

Simeone, Michael P.

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/24244 Copy

Description

Title

American gadgets: cybernetics, consumer electronics, and twentieth-century us fiction

Author(s)

Simeone, Michael P.

Issue Date

2011-05-25T14:52:52Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Markley, Robert

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Markley, Robert

Committee Member(s)

• Nelson, Cary
• Schaffner, Spencer W.
• Basu, Anustup
• Mandell, Laura

Department of Study

English

Discipline

English

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• cybernetics
• posthumanism
• american literature
• electronics
• gadgets
• cyberpunk
• media studies
• new media
• digital humanities
• postwar literature
• informatics

Abstract

Challenging the argument that liberal humanism faces extinction in the face of ubiquitous digital technologies, my dissertation analyzes the ways in which consumer electronics reinscribe the human subject as a privileged category in the information age. Through spaces like the Matrix, Windows 7, or even the single row of play controls on a cassette deck, gadgets preserve the concept of human autonomy by yoking personal entertainment with technical knowledge, agency, citizenship, and individuality. In American postwar fiction and film, gadgets serve powerful functions that allow authors such as Thomas Pynchon, William S. Burroughs, Neal Stephenson, Pat Cadigan, and Richard Powers to explore the complexities of humankind’s responses to technological and digital innovation

Graduation Semester

2011-05

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/24244

Copyright and License Information

copyright 2011 Michael Simeone

Owning Collections