Abstract

Largely unexplored in the domestic field, the field of science fiction in Costa Rican Literature offers many opportunities for research. This article analyzes four Costa Rican science fiction short stories published in the early 21st century: “Yo, la criatura” by José Ricardo Chaves, “Joyería mental” by Jessica Clark; “Lunas en vez de sombras” by Ericka Lippi, and “El ejército de Onara” by Daniel Garro. All of these works have something in common: the presence of cyborgs, the focus of this analysis. To this effect, firstly it offers a brief theorization about science fiction; hereinafter, the notion of cyborg and its relation with post-humanity are explained, based on authors Donna Haraway, Rosi Braidotti, Katherine Hayles, and Christian Hables Gray, among others. Regarding literary analysis, this article focuses on construction and description, through the stylistic resources of the bodies of the characters in the short stories, offering an individual interpretation of each one and closing with a comparison between the different propositions. It concludes that these short stories show different reflections, tensions, fears, concerns and possibilities on science and technology linked with the modification and intervention of the human body.

Key words: Science fiction; short stories; literary analysis; cybernetics; Latin American literatura