ABSTRACT
In Levi’s portrayals of the relationship between the human body and technology, not only is the individual frequently alienated from his or her own body as a result of dominant, hyper-rationalized conceptions of embodiment, but the body also becomes a site of struggle; the boundaries of the somatic container are circumscribed by imprisoning metallic contraptions and breached by penetrating devices, with profound effects on the individual’s ontological state. The previous chapter showed how bureaucratic logic can transform the ways in which individuals and societies understand, manipulate, and therefore experience biological processes, including the fact of being embodied. Here the focus shifts instead to the technologized ‘mechanics of power’ that impacts directly upon the body, recodifying and politicizing our very anatomies, rendering them ‘docile’ to external intervention (Foucault 1977, 138). Thanks to this power it is possible to control the physical actions and movements of others:
one may have a hold over others’ bodies, not only so that they may do what one wishes, but so that they may operate as one wishes, with the techniques, the speed and the effi ciency that one determines. (Foucault 1977, 138)
Indeed, in Levi’s technologized science fi ction scenarios, the potential offered by electronic devices for the manipulation of individuals and of the body, results not in the reinvention of the human being with increased capacities but instead in many instances of enforced docility. As I show, a signifi cant aspect of this manipulation involves not only rendering the individual mentally and physically docile, but also redrawing, reinforcing or reconceptualizing the boundaries of the body, which impacts on the freedom of the embodied individual in all their physical experiences.
