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A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

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predispositions. Just as <strong>the</strong>ory after World War II <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>gly turned to a radical critique <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

“human” and all its smuggled assumptions, so to did <strong>the</strong> narratives <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> displaced utopian<br />

imag<strong>in</strong>ary <strong>of</strong>fer up <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>gly estranged visions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> self. The challenge presented by<br />

<strong>the</strong>ories <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> abject and <strong>the</strong> post-human and by <strong>the</strong> horrific scenario <strong>of</strong> alien abduction is <strong>the</strong><br />

challenge to re-imag<strong>in</strong>e what it might mean to be human. It is a challenge we ignore at our own<br />

peril.<br />

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