“POSTHUMAN” IMAGE IN DAN SIMMONS’ NOVEL “ILIUM”

Abstract

Contemporary literature increasingly becomes a medium for exploring philosophical and existential transformations of human nature in the age of technological acceleration. Within the framework of posthumanist thought, the figure of the posthuman, a being that transcends the limits of traditional anthropocentrism, has gained particular theoretical significance. This article examines the literary representation of the posthuman in Dan Simmons’s science fiction novel Ilium through the lens of ontoaesthetics, emphasizing the intersection of narrative form, intertextuality, and posthumanist philosophy.

The study aims to identify how Simmons constructs posthuman subjectivity and how the novel’s aesthetic strategies embody philosophical reflection on human-machine hybridity, embodiment, and cultural memory. Drawing on the works of Rosi Braidotti, N. Katherine Hayles, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Martin Heidegger, as well as narratological frameworks by Mieke Bal and Gérard Genette, this paper integrates literary and philosophical methods to analyze the novel’s aesthetic mechanisms.

The findings demonstrate that Ilium enacts posthuman ontology not only thematically but formally, through fragmented narration, distributed focalization, and intertextual dialogue with Homeric and modernist texts. The study argues that Simmons’s narrative transforms classical myth into a speculative meditation on the nature of being and consciousness in the posthuman era.

The research contributes to the development of posthumanist literary studies and ontoaesthetic methodology as a framework for interpreting speculative fiction.

The results can be used in the analysis and teaching of posthumanist and science-fiction literature, as well as in interdisciplinary courses combining literature, philosophy, and digital humanities.