Myth, Technology, and the (Post)Human Subject in William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy

Master’s Thesis from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: Distinction, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics), 35 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Gibson’s fiction both embraces the potential of technology for undermining traditional categories and, at the same time, encodes a nostalgic longing for the stable identities produced by these very categories. This study will show how William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy blends high-tech and myth in order to articulate an oxymoronic tension between possessed and possessive individualism. This oxymoronic tension is expressed through Gibson’s literary production of two particular technologies: the cyborg and the net. This study will interrogate these two literary constructs in Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy in order to show how they impinge on ideas of signification, subjectivity, and identity.