Vom Leben aus der Retorte

Abstract

Abstract Since 1987, the year of birth of the first child conceived outside the womb, experiments with human life have been leading to an intense public debate about the benefits, chances and risks of research in reproductive medicine. For what had formerly existed in fictional worlds only, be it the alchemical mind game, the homunculus- recipe of Paracelsus or the breeding centre of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, was now happening in reality. With in vitro fertilization becoming a feasible alternative to creating offspring, the literary forms of representation for those technologies changed, too. This will be analysed in three exemplary 1980s novels with regard to topical focus, modifications in genre poetics and specific rhetoricity. It becomes apparent that in the age of human reproductive technology, the old motif of life from the lab has long lost its fictitious status and now manifests itself in diverse, sometimes bizarre ways as a part of social reality. As a result, authors now focus on the specific ethical and social problems of reproductive medicine. However, for fictional elaboration and rhetorical ornamentation of dystopias, bio-genetics and nanotechnology are mostly consulted because these sciences offer means of seemingly creating perfected and custom-made descendants.