Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism

1. Introduction: Why Do We Need Aliens?
Elana Gomel

Part I. Confrontation

2. “The Force that Gives us Meaning”: Alien Invasion and Search for Redemption
Elana Gomel

3. Idylls of the Same: Soviet SF, Cosmic Humanism, and Escape from History
Elana Gomel

Part II. Assimilation

4. The Contagion of Posthumanity: Alien Infestation and the Paradox of Subjectivity
Elana Gomel

5. Human Skins, Alien Masks: Allegories of Postcolonial Guilt
Elana Gomel

Part III. Transformation

6. The Human Trinity: What Makes Us Other?
Elana Gomel

7. Stanislaw Lem and the Holocaust of Humanism
Elana Gomel

8. Postscript
Elana Gomel

Avainsanat: Literature, Twentieth-Century Literature, Literary Theory, Cultural Theory, Cultural and Media Studies, general, Fiction, North American Literature