Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Reid, Amy

Area of Concentration

Literature

Abstract

Narratives centering on human contact with the “other”—aliens, monsters, and robots—are prevalent in science fiction. While these narratives encourage us to consider the physical and ethical boundaries of humanness, they also problematically recenter the experiences and perceptions of men—of White men—as those of a non-existent “neutral” human being. In this thesis, I analyze representations of robotic beings in science fiction to deconstruct Western logics of oppression and expose the constructed nature of the category “human.” In particular, I focus on the limitations of the binary logic of “self” as opposed to “other” in regard to race and gender. I begin with a generic introduction wherein I explain vocabulary common to robot science fiction to situate my reader in a subgenre that exists in a strong feedback loop with science fact. In my first chapter, I consider how the AI protagonists of the films her and Ex Machina manipulate masculine expectations of tropic femininities to their own ends. In my second chapter, I consider the novel Positronic Man and the graphic novel series Descender to analyze reflections of the contemporary and historical oppression of African Americans. I focus my chapter by considering how the questions texts raise about robot independence and robot rights reveal the racist underpinnings of American society on both the micro and macro levels. By considering these themes in robot science fiction, we are able to challenge the assumptions that structure our interactions with “others” and better understand the limitations of binary logics used to define the category “human.”

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