Bender: Ethics for the Future (transcript 2023)

Which of the possible futures might be a good future, and how do we know? Stephanie Bender looks at contemporary films and novels to address major ethical challenges of the future: the ecological catastrophe, digitalisation and biotechnology. She proposes that fiction and its modes of aesthetic simulation and emotional engagement offer a different way of knowing and judging possible futures. From a critical posthumanist angle, she discusses works ranging from Don DeLillo's Zero K (2017) and Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy (2003-2013) to Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 as well as Avatar (2009), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017) among many others.

Stephanie Bender, 2023: Ethics for the Future: Perspectives from 21st Century Fiction, Bielefeld: transcript, 318 S., ISBN: 978-3-8376-6820-9, € 49,00

Stephanie Bender war Promotionsstipendiatin der Rosa-Luxemburg Stiftung.