The pertinence of the study stems from the fact that currently the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, and communication technologies is creating a new situation in which a person not only shapes the external environment to improve living conditions, but also seeks to change their very biological existence. At the same time, the breakthrough of modern technologies allows us to talk about the formation of a new type of thinking, a change in its value-normative picture of the world. In this article, the ideas of transhumanism are considered as a response to the impulse caused by the development of NBIC technologies. These trends could not but affect the cultural component of human existence, including literature. The scientific novelty of this study is supported by the fact that the concept of transhumanism begins to develop in science fiction and journalism, precisely in these areas where ideas are formed and visualized that technology will lead humanity to possible progress. Today, literature in the genre of science fiction creates many descriptive images – the image of a cyborg, transhuman, posthuman, avatar, which leads to the emergence of completely new issues in literary works. However, literary narrative has not been examined to identify common themes that characterize transhumanist literature. The purpose of this study is to offer an analysis of the representation of the transhumanist worldview in literary works and to demonstrate how created literary images of the posthuman future are embedded and transmitted in popular culture. To achieve the goal, it is necessary: (1) to analyze the general conceptual foundations that unite various author’s versions of transhumanism, (2) to consider the figurative embodiment of transhumanism in literature, to identify the themes and markers of the representation of the ideas of transhumanism in the literary narrative. The author comes to the conclusion that mass culture, literature in particular, serves as a tool for adapting mass consciousness to the transhumanistic ideas of the modern cyberphysical world, contributing to the normalization of cybernetic aesthetics and acts of cyborgization at the everyday level, blurring the boundaries of the familiar.
The pertinence of the study stems from the fact that currently the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, and communication technologies is creating a new situation in which a person not only shapes the external environment to improve living conditions, but also seeks to change their very biological existence. At the same time, the breakthrough of modern technologies allows us to talk about the formation of a new type of thinking, a change in its value-normative picture of the world. In this article, the ideas of transhumanism are considered as a response to the impulse caused by the development of NBIC technologies. These trends could not but affect the cultural component of human existence, including literature. The scientific novelty of this study is supported by the fact that the concept of transhumanism begins to develop in science fiction and journalism, precisely in these areas where ideas are formed and visualized that technology will lead humanity to possible progress. Today, literature in the genre of science fiction creates many descriptive images – the image of a cyborg, transhuman, posthuman, avatar, which leads to the emergence of completely new issues in literary works. However, literary narrative has not been examined to identify common themes that characterize transhumanist literature. The purpose of this study is to offer an analysis of the representation of the transhumanist worldview in literary works and to demonstrate how created literary images of the posthuman future are embedded and transmitted in popular culture. To achieve the goal, it is necessary: (1) to analyze the general conceptual foundations that unite various author’s versions of transhumanism, (2) to consider the figurative embodiment of transhumanism in literature, to identify the themes and markers of the representation of the ideas of transhumanism in the literary narrative. The author comes to the conclusion that mass culture, literature in particular, serves as a tool for adapting mass consciousness to the transhumanistic ideas of the modern cyberphysical world, contributing to the normalization of cybernetic aesthetics and acts of cyborgization at the everyday level, blurring the boundaries of the familiar.