“Girl meets boy”: postcyborg ethics, individual identity and collective rights in the posthuman age

Abstract

Taking as a point of departure the novel’s setting in a world controlled by online networks and global corporations, together with human beings’ position as decoders of the excess of information in contemporary culture, this essay provides a posthuman interpretation of Ali Smith’s "Girl meets boy" (2007) under the lenses of Rosi Braidotti’s postulates on posthumanity and Heidi Campbell’s postcyborg ethics. Thus, I analyse the ways in which the novel probes into the limits of humanity and individual identity as related to virtual environments, body politics and sexuality. Attention is also paid to the novel’s raising of collective awareness and social struggle against injustice and the oppression of women, homosexuals and third-world citizens as a response to their invisible, naturalized dehumanization by the contemporary global politics of consumer culture.