論葛瑞格‧貝爾之《末日》系列中的身體、權力及生命

This thesis aims to analyze how the bodies of SHEVA people in Darwin’s series are controlled and exploited among the complex relationship between powers, medicalization, and biotechnology by adopting Michel Foucault’s theories about biopower. Darwin’s series include many forms of powers. By means of different mechanisms, the bodies of SHEVA people are subordinate to the power of the state, and thus become docile for regulation. In the novel, the sovereign power, another kind of power, displays and penetrates human life during SHEVA crisis. Through exclusive inclusion, human life is deprived of citizenship and is exposed to danger. Giorgio Agamben’s concepts of bare life and state of exception provide us with a different outlook to inspect the relationship between laws and human life. Although in Darwin’s series the human body is manipulated by powers, the outbreak of SHEVA disease, as an event, creates the new possibility of human life. Meanwhile, it shows that the human body as a medium of infection can be resistant to dominant powers. The Deleuzian event means a change, which accompanies newness. The emergence of new children is not a threat to human race, but helps the old humanity to foresee the future world. Also, Donna Haraway’s cyborg theory and Katherine Hayles’ posthuman theory can offer us a distinct view of point to examine the relationship between human life and technology.