William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer’ and the relation between mind and body

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1 (very good), Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (Institut fur fremdsprachliche Philologien), course: Cyborgs (WS 2001/2002), 4 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This paper is about William Gibson’s famous novel Neuromancer . Neuromancer was the book that initiated the cyberpunk debate, a debate that was very influential in culture studies and modern literature. The cyberpunk debate created a more suspicious image of new technologies and their effect on the role of the human being as well as the social life and the society. Gibson’s position towards the mind-body-problem, i.e. the relation between mind and body, is examined. An overview is given of possible technologies he describes and how they trigger the breakdown between man and machine as well as between individuals. The paper also sketches the effects of those technologies on social interaction, moral values and the structure of the society.