UC Irvine

This dissertation explores Mexican science fiction under the lens of posthuman studies. It contributes to the nascent scholarship of the genre by analizing its inherent counterdiscourse in questioning the legacy of state sponsored positivism from 19th century and its effects on contemporary Mexican modernity. A close study of Mexican avant-garde texts written by the Estridentistas during the postrevolutionary years reveals utopian politics and aesthetics, which allow the dissertation to contrast their work with the dystopian discourse of postmodern Mexican cyberpunk. In reavealing a common technological genealogy between the avant-gardes and Mexican science fiction, the dissertation resorts to the invention of a new concept called, Neurotextuality. The remaining chapters focus on the themes of time and space travel; as a deconstructive historiography, the apocalypse; as a posthuman aesthetic, and the allegorical representation of subalternity in science fiction. These mediums provide the dissertation with critical assessments of positivistic thought.