Techno Subjectivities: The Politics of Cyborg-Cyber Feminist Resistance in Annalee Newitz' Autonomous

Abstract

Abstract
This article offers a critical reading of Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous through cyborg and cyber feminism, focusing on the articulation of techno-subjectivities and their role in feminist resistance. By examining key female characters who embody hybrid identities—human, cyborg, and molecular biotechnologist—Autonomous exposes the entanglements of gender, technology, and power within contemporary bio-capitalist structures. The paper explores how the novel critiques the commodification of scientific knowledge and pharmaceutical monopolies while presenting female characters who enact subversive forms of agency through biotechnology and artificial intelligence. Drawing on theoretical insights from Donna Haraway and Sadie Plant, the analysis foregrounds the novel’s challenge to traditional boundaries between human and machine, subject and object, and self and other. This study argues that Autonomous models a feminist politics of resistance through relational, techno-embodied subjectivities that actively critique, intervene, resist and destabilize systems of power—particularly bio-capitalism, patriarchy, and scientific hegemony—while envisioning more equitable techno-social futures.

Key Words: cyborg feminism, cyberfeminism, techno-subjectivity, feminist resistance, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, bio-capitalism, posthumanism, techno-social futures.