Research Article

Unplugging the Cyborg: The Female Cyborg Experience in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In

Volume: 1 Number: 2 July 10, 2024
TR EN

Unplugging the Cyborg: The Female Cyborg Experience in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In

Abstract

The concept of freedom is integral to cyberpunk literature and is prominently explored through the depiction of the cyborg figure, particularly female cyborg figure, as seen in James Tiptree Jr.’s novella, The Girl Who Was Plugged In (1973). Tiptree’s novella explores the intersection of the human and the machine in relation to agency, identity, and independence through P. Burke, who lives in and experiences sociality through Delphi’s synthetic body. Set in dystopian future, the narrative enables a critical investigation of human existence and freedom in the cyberpunk age’s intertwining organic and synthetic realms. As P. Burke navigates her existence in Delphi's body, the tension between genuine human desires and the constraints imposed by technological interfaces as well as organKc lKmKtatKons of the body evokes a certaKn questKon assocKated wKth such KntrKcate and conflKctKng sKtuatKon: Does the transformative cyborg experience liberate or subjugate the individual? Drawing on Deleuze & Guattari’s notion of rhizome and Donna Haraway’s explorations on how the figure of cyborg challenges the phallocentric Western discourse, this paper aims to examine freedom and agency within the portrayal of the female cyborg in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In and argues that the cyborg experience presents both a deconstruction and reaffirmation of humanistic values in a shifting context.

Keywords

References

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  2. Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. L. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
  3. Ferrández-Sanmiguel, M. (2018). Appropriated bodies: Trauma, biopower and the posthuman in Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild” and James Tiptree, Jr.’s “The Girl Who Was Plugged In”. Atlantis. 40. 27-44. 10.28914/Atlantis-2018-40.2.02.
  4. Haraway, D. (1991). “A cyborg manifesto: Science, technology, and socialist-feminism in the late twentieth century,” In Simians, cyborgs, and women: the reinvention of nature (1st ed. pp. 149-181). New York: Routledge.
  5. Harper, M. C. (1995). Incurably alien other: A case for feminist cyborg writers. Science Fiction Studies, 22(3), 399–420. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4240459
  6. Hicks, H. J. (1996). “Whatever it is that she’s since become”: Writing bodies of text and bodies of women in James Tiptree, Jr.’s “The Girl Who Was Plugged in” and William Gibson’s “The Winter Market.” Contemporary Literature, 37(1), 62–93. https://doi.org/10.2307/1208751
  7. Hollinger, V. (1999). (Re)reading queerly: Science fiction, feminism, and the defamiliarization of gender. Science Fiction Studies, 26(1), 23–40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4240749
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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

North American Language, Literature and Culture

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

July 10, 2024

Submission Date

January 22, 2024

Acceptance Date

May 3, 2024

Published in Issue

Year 2024 Volume: 1 Number: 2

APA
Şen, S. Y., & Akaltun Akan, E. (2024). Unplugging the Cyborg: The Female Cyborg Experience in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In. ASSOS İnsan Ve Toplum Bilimlerinde Araştırmalar Dergisi, 1(2), 26-39. https://izlik.org/JA76XM94PR
AMA
1.Şen SY, Akaltun Akan E. Unplugging the Cyborg: The Female Cyborg Experience in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In. ASSOS İnsan ve Toplum Bilimlerinde Araştırmalar Dergisi. 2024;1(2):26-39. https://izlik.org/JA76XM94PR
Chicago
Şen, Selis Yıldız, and Evren Akaltun Akan. 2024. “Unplugging the Cyborg: The Female Cyborg Experience in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In”. ASSOS İnsan Ve Toplum Bilimlerinde Araştırmalar Dergisi 1 (2): 26-39. https://izlik.org/JA76XM94PR.
EndNote
Şen SY, Akaltun Akan E (July 1, 2024) Unplugging the Cyborg: The Female Cyborg Experience in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In. ASSOS İnsan ve Toplum Bilimlerinde Araştırmalar Dergisi 1 2 26–39.
IEEE
[1]S. Y. Şen and E. Akaltun Akan, “Unplugging the Cyborg: The Female Cyborg Experience in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In”, ASSOS İnsan ve Toplum Bilimlerinde Araştırmalar Dergisi, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 26–39, July 2024, [Online]. Available: https://izlik.org/JA76XM94PR
ISNAD
Şen, Selis Yıldız - Akaltun Akan, Evren. “Unplugging the Cyborg: The Female Cyborg Experience in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In”. ASSOS İnsan ve Toplum Bilimlerinde Araştırmalar Dergisi 1/2 (July 1, 2024): 26-39. https://izlik.org/JA76XM94PR.
JAMA
1.Şen SY, Akaltun Akan E. Unplugging the Cyborg: The Female Cyborg Experience in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In. ASSOS İnsan ve Toplum Bilimlerinde Araştırmalar Dergisi. 2024;1:26–39.
MLA
Şen, Selis Yıldız, and Evren Akaltun Akan. “Unplugging the Cyborg: The Female Cyborg Experience in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In”. ASSOS İnsan Ve Toplum Bilimlerinde Araştırmalar Dergisi, vol. 1, no. 2, July 2024, pp. 26-39, https://izlik.org/JA76XM94PR.
Vancouver
1.Selis Yıldız Şen, Evren Akaltun Akan. Unplugging the Cyborg: The Female Cyborg Experience in James Tiptree Jr.’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In. ASSOS İnsan ve Toplum Bilimlerinde Araştırmalar Dergisi [Internet]. 2024 Jul. 1;1(2):26-39. Available from: https://izlik.org/JA76XM94PR