Reimagining Humanity: Posthuman Biopolitics in Jeanette Winterson`s The Stone Gods

Authors : Gözde Pınar Bilginer

Pages : 94-109

Doi:10.46250/kulturder.1617471

View : 114 | Download : 62

Publication Date : 2025-03-10

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods examines the entanglement of human and posthuman entities, interrogating the ways technological and biological transformations challenge traditional conceptions of identity. By applying posthuman studies, this article explores how the novel resists rigid categorizations of the human and the posthuman, instead presenting a continuum of beings shaped by environmental and technological shifts. The dystopian atmosphere unsettles fixed distinctions, demonstrating that the posthuman does not exist as a separate category but emerges through relational and interconnected processes. While the novel’s futuristic setting foregrounds posthuman existence, the protagonist, Billie, embodies an insistence on emotional depth, ethical responsibility, and relationality rather than adhering to an essentialized humanist framework. Likewise, Spike is not positioned in opposition to the human but rather as a figure that complicates binary understandings of organic and artificial life. Neither a soulless machine nor a monstrous other, Spike possesses intelligence, self-awareness, and affective capacities, reflecting posthumanism’s reconfiguration of subjectivity. This article argues that The Stone Gods subverts anthropocentric assumptions by portraying posthuman identities as entangled with, rather than separate from, human existence. Through its portrayal of Billie and Spike, the novel illustrates how technological and ontological shifts disrupt established notions of identity, demanding a reassessment of the human/nonhuman continuum.
Keywords : Posthümanizm, Jeanette Winterson, The Stone Gods, roman, yapay zekâ

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