Cosmodolphins: A Feminist Cultural Studies Of Technology, Animals And The Sacred

Applying Recent Thinking On Gender And The Environment To Original Research In Science And Technology, This Unique Book Explores Postcolonial Relationships With 'the Wild' Using The Us And Russia As Examples. The Authors Analyse Contemporary Categorizations Of 'human Self' Versus 'wild Other' Through Three Twentieth Century Icons That Best Illustrate Ambivalent Ideas About Self And Other: Spaceships, Horoscopes And Dolphins. Theoretically Innovative, This Book Represents An Alternative Approach To Ecofeminist Themes Linking Them Up With Studies Of New Technocultures And Cyborgs. It Forms An Excellent Exemplar Of Feminist Cultural Studies.--book Jacket. Prelude -- From 'earth Dolphins' To This Book -- To Rewrite The Master Narratives Of Space Flight -- Inappropriate Contiguities: The Spaceship, The Horoscope And The Dolphin -- Cosmos And Ocean: The Extraterrestrial 'commons' -- To Cannibalize And Worship The Wild: In Early Modernity And Today -- Amazing Stories -- Map Of Matrices -- Methods And Materials -- To Speak As Implicated Strangers -- On The Inclusion Of 'nature' In Feminist Cultural Studies -- Human, Non-human, Posthuman -- Are Animals A Feminist Issue? -- Do Feminists Need A Cosmology? -- Feminism, Science And Spirituality -- Philosophy's Shadows And The Female Divine -- Feminism, Story-telling And Extraterrestrialism -- To Widen The Geographical Map Of Cultural Studies -- Amazing Stories I-iii: The Spaceship, The Horoscope And The Dolphin -- Touch The Moon! -- A Coincidental Meeting -- This Is A Trick! -- Between Amazement And Estrangement -- The Space Age Adventure: To Leave Human Marks In Outer Space -- 'the Space Mural -- A Cosmic View' -- 'to The Conquerors Of Space ... ' -- The Masculine Adventure Story -- The New Age Pilgrimage: To Be Pervaded With Macrocosmic Meaning -- Celestine Messages And Meaningful Coincidences -- A World Of Reversals -- Dolphin Fables Of New Age And Space Age: Between Pastoral And Science Fiction -- The Dolphin As Noble Savage -- To Be Imprinted With Cetacean Wisdom -- Pastoral Precursors -- The Dolphin As Cyborg -- 'uplift' And 'education In Humanity' -- To Read Out Of Context -- The Big Mission -- To Devote One's Life To The Big Mission. Mette Marie Bryld And Nina Lykke. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Applying recent thinking on gender and the environment to original research in science and technology, this unique book explores postcolonial relationships with 'the wild' using the US and Russia as examples. The authors analyse contemporary categorizations of 'human self' versus 'wild other' through three twentieth century icons that best illustrate ambivalent ideas about self and spaceships, horoscopes and dolphins. The book includes interviews with astrologers, wilderness guides, dolphin trainers and academic staff of space agencies from both Russia and the US.The interviews highlight some interesting differences between these two cultures in ideas both about gender and about self/other boundaries. The authors also look at representations of the space race in film and science fiction in both cultures, as well as New Age and other texts on dolphins, astrology and space travel. Cosmodolphins shows how all three icons partly reproduce and partly alter the earlier, colonial self/other dichotomy of woman, native and nature against the 'civilized' technologically masterful male self. We see how a particular icon of the wild - the dolphin - is elevated to mythological status, how a secularized society looks for spiritual fulfilment in the `beyond' - astrology - and in its own technological advances - space travel. Theoretically innovative, this book represents an alternative approach to ecofeminist themes linking them up with studies of new technocultures and cyborgs. It forms an excellent exemplar of feminist cultural studies.