RT Book, Section
T1 Vulnerability through the  Invulnerable Transhuman LensEthics and Disruption of Emotional Connections and Mental Affections in Maniac (2018)
A1 Chapman, Ana María
K1 Humanismo
K1 Literatura norteamericana
K1 Literatura contemporánea
AB This chapter examines representations of mental conditions in the dystopian backdrop for transhumanism in Netflix’s series Maniac. In the quest for human perfectionism, vulnerabilities are exposed and intensified by technological disruption. The transhumanist promise of human enhancement is presented in the series as hindering basic affect, self-awareness, and emotional response that in turn makes for human relational interdependence. Accordingly, it focuses on how the invulnerable transhuman figure is posed as a threat to subjectivity and autonomy. Vulnerability studies, ethics of care, neuroscientific theories on emotional sensations (interoception and exteroception awareness), and posthumanism give support to the chapter’s main thesis that this series posits characters’ fundamentally relational essence for well-being as based on ethical grounds different from those seen in the transhumanist paradigm, which is based on individualism, independence, autonomy and/or self-sufficiency via technology. For this study, theories on transhumanism, vulnerability, emotional, and ethical studies are introduced to give way to the analysis of the series. Firstly, the chapter explores Maniac’s representation of technology and mental health in a setting where characters seem to be in search of connections to move on to a discussion of the implications of relational and emotional engagement for characters’ well-being and autonomy.
PB Routledge
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/33652
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/33652
LA eng
NO Chapman, A. (2023). "Vulnerability through the  Invulnerable Transhuman Lens: Ethics and Disruption of Emotional Connections and Mental Affections in Maniac (2018)". In Embodied VulnerAbilities in Literature and Film (pp. 122–137). Routledge.
NO Project  P20_00008  funded  by  the  Consejería  de  Universidad,  Investigación  e  Innovación  de  la  Junta  de  Andalucía  and  FEDER  Una  manera  de  hacer  Europa  and  project  A-HUM-22-UGR20  funded  by  the  Consejería  de  Universidad,  Investigación  e  Innovación  de  la  Junta  de  Andalucía  and  FEDER  Una  manera de hacer Europa
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 19 ene 2026