La problématicité du récit des nouvelles technologies : dire son être post-humain

Through a simultaneous comprehension of Michel Houellebecq’s novel La Possibilité d’une île (2005) and Juan Eduardo de Urraza’s novel La Sociedad de las mentes (2001), this article attempts to demonstrate that the novelistic representation of the post-human, which is built in a strong relationship with new technologies, is invariably linked to an ontological reflection on the nature of beings, which can define their essence only beyond the limits of traditional humanity. After having been characterized as agents who, by their neo-technological configurations, dominate a collapsed humanity, the post-human protagonists are analyzed through their response to the question of existential dissatisfaction, while facing their problematic subjectivity. Cognitive and anthropological perspectives are finally revealed, breaking up with those of the traditional novel and emphasizing the human experience of the contemporary, in its links to new technologies.