THE SECRET OF LIFE.

This article starts from the premise that, if there is something like an ethico-political imperative in cultural studies – i.e. an imperative to respond to, and take responsibility for, incalculable difference in what we term ‘culture’ and ‘nature’ – this imperative obliges us to address the most ‘v...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Cultural Studies Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 95 - 118
Autor principal: Zylinska, Joanna
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Jan2007
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=23331972&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: hlh
    uiTerm: 23331972
    longDbName: Humanities International Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        09502386
        05G
      jtl: Cultural Studies
      issn: 09502386
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Jan2007
      vid: 21
      iid: 1
      pid: 377
      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
    artinfo:
      ui:
        23331972
        10.1080/09502380601047046
      ppf: 95
      ppct: 23
      formats:
        fmt:
          – @attributes:
              type: T
          – @attributes:
              type: P
              size: 122KB
      tig:
        atl: THE SECRET OF LIFE.
      aug:
        au: Zylinska, Joanna
      su:
        Cultural studies
        Life sciences
        Genetic code
        DNA
        Bioethics
        Ethics
        Philosophy
        Science
        Business enterprises
      sug:
        subj:
          Cultural studies
          Life sciences
          Genetic code
          DNA
          Bioethics
          Ethics
          Philosophy
          Science
          Business enterprises
      keyword:
        bioethics
        biopolitics
        genetic code
        Levinas
        life
        life sciences
        secret
      ab: This article starts from the premise that, if there is something like an ethico-political imperative in cultural studies – i.e. an imperative to respond to, and take responsibility for, incalculable difference in what we term ‘culture’ and ‘nature’ – this imperative obliges us to address the most ‘vital’ issue through which difference manifests itself: the issue of ‘life’. Drawing on a number of rhetorical tropes that have played a significant role in the life sciences I want to suggest that cultural critics have an obligation to engage with the tropes of life developed both in science and in popular discourses about science. Specifically, I propose to look at the conceptualisation of the discovery of the structure of DNA and of the mapping of the genetic code through the trope of ‘cracking the secret of life’, a trope which has to a large extent shaped the dominant ideas about life, nature and ‘the human’. My engagement with the discourses of the life sciences will allow me to delineate an ‘ethics of life’, a new way of thinking about bios inspired by the work of Agamben, Butler, Foucault and Levinas. This new bio-ethics will go beyond some of the more established ways of thinking about bioethics that have been developed within the corporate world of biotechnosciences, as well as beyond the dominant positions on life within traditional moral philosophy. What is of principal interest and importance to me in this article is therefore not so much cracking ‘the secret of life’ once and for all, but rather exploring the already existing cracks in the current discourses and debates on bios and bioethics.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: Y
      custom: Copyright of Cultural Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
      item: Cultural Studies
      holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd
      dt:
        @attributes:
          year: 2007
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N