Nightmares and Dreams: Representations of Cyborg in Science Fiction

Yıl 2023, Cilt: 10 Sayı: 18, 57 - 71, 28.06.2023

Volkan Erol

https://doi.org/10.56133/intermedia.1182131

Öz

Cyborgs, which are reflections of the machine and human unity, are not only a part of science fiction literature and cinema, but also a part of narratives that have been told since humans began to imagine and tell stories. Thus, cyborgs manifest themselves in mythologies. Cyborgs, which have become an important part of utopian and dystopian literature and later science fiction, have been a theme of both fear of mechanization and loss of humanity and desires of immortality and perfection. Asimov, Philip Dick, William Gibson and many others shaped their narratives around robots, androids, cyborgs and augmented humans. Especially cyberpunk, a subgenre of science fiction, has centralized the notion of augmentation and human-machine interaction. Their genderlessness has placed them in the center of the discourse on gender, sexuality and body.
Representation of females has been always an issue, especially in cinema. They represented as innocent beings without any sexuality or the other way around. We see them as femme fatales in film noir genre: dangerous, tempting, fatal. Even though within the context of the genre, they are not pure evil and sometimes we feel for them, still, they were punished for what they’ve done to the male protagonist.
Cyberpunk genre has close ties to film noir, even so, it gave birth to a subgenre called tech-noir which gives femme fatale characters a new power, a new meaning. Now they are more dangerous, more fatal, and beautiful than ever. This new representation of female body and its possibilities open the door for both dystopian and utopian approaches to the future of humanity. On one hand, we have augmented women that are strong, free from gender roles, fluxed in cyberspace and cyborgs which are thread to all humanity on the other. While scholars like Donna Harraway take stand on the former, and science fiction literature also gives us different perspectives on the subject, science fiction movies, especially Hollywood generally follow a more straight narrative structure.
When we focused visual and narrative representation of cyborg bodies, we can’t dismiss video games. So, in this context, I analyzed some of the best-known female characters in science fiction games that acquired a cult status between the players. Video games are special because there are no longer spectators, but players, who are actively join the narrative, feeling a total immersion.
The purpose of this study is to examine the representations of cyborgs in the context of body, sexuality and gender. Following Eco’s approach to semiotics, that we can interpret every sign as a signifier for something else, I am going to use semiology as the methodology of this study.
Within this context, I analyzed some well-known science fiction movies and games that are influential. In order to do my analyzes, first I examine the concept of cyborg, amalgam of man and machine. Even though cyborg is a theme of science fiction and it is relatively a new concept, we can see quite similar concepts in mythologies. Themes like immortality in the body of a machine have been always an interesting idea for humanity. Cinema as a whole, can be called a modern mythology.
After this brief history of cyborg, idea of femme fatale and its incarnations and ties with science fiction in literature, cinema and video games have been examined. They constructed both visually and narratively strong, perfect and dangerous. Their machine body gives femme fatale figure another layer of power and horror. Even though cyborgs don’t have a gender, they are depicted as human-like as possible. In Terminator series, we see T 800 as a symbol of masculinity while TX in Terminator 3 is constructed as a female cyborg and its role in the movie is much like a femme fatale.
Then I analyzed the cyborgs and gender in the context of cyberspace. Movies like Ghost in the Shell depicts cyborgs more fluid and free from the boundaries of gender. Even though Motoko look like a female, in cyberspace, she has no phsyscial body, she consists of mind. Also, in real world, Motoko can transfer her mind to a male cyborg, her body is not static. Movie’s approach to gender projects Harraway’s vision over all.
In conclusion, even though there is a tendency to depict cyborgs human like and give them gender roles, science fiction represents as them transcendent beings more and more. Cyborgs are useful plot devices to predict a possible future of humanity in the perspective of technology, psychology and sociology. Also, science fiction gives an interdisciplinary study field in the respect. Farther studies could analyze the cyborg concept with different angles and expand the field.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Cyborg, Body, Science Fiction, Gender, Cyberpunk

Kâbuslar ve Rüyalar: Bilim Kurguda Siborg Temsilleri

Öz

Makine ve insan birlikteliğinin bir yansıması olan siborglar, yalnızca bilim kurgu yazınının ve sinemasının değil, insanın hayal kurmaya, hikâye anlatmaya başladığı zamanlardan beri üretilen anlatıların bir parçası olmuş, mitolojilerde kendini göstermiştir. Distopik ve ütopik edebiyatın, daha sonra ise bilim kurgunun önemli bir parçası haline gelen siborglar, hem makineleşme, insanlığın kaybı gibi korkuların, hem de ölümsüzlük, mükemmellik gibi arzuların yansıtıldığı bir tema olmuş; siborgların cinsiyetsiz olma durumları onları, toplumsal cinsiyet, cinsellik, beden üzerine söylemlerin de odağına yerleştirmiştir. Çalışmanın amacı bilim kurgu türünde siborgların sunumunu beden, cinsellik ve cinsiyet çerçevesinde incelemektir. Bu çerçevede, özellikle, göstergebilime daha geniş bir yelpazeden bakan ve her sembolün ve imgenin başka bir şeyin yerine geçebilecek şekilde değerlendirilebileceğini belirten Umberto Eco’nun yaklaşımı benimsenerek, seçilen örnekler üzerinden çözümlemeler yapılmıştır. Yapılan çözümlemeler, siborg kavramının özellikle cinsiyet çalışmaları için elverişli bir alan oluşturduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Bilim kurgu sineması ve siborg metaforu, insan ve makinenin birleştiği gelecek tasvirlerinin merkezinde olup, cinsiyet-cinsiyetsizlik kavramlarının interdisipliner bir şekilde çalışılması için zengin bir kaynak oluşturmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Siborg, Beden, Bilim kurgu, Cinsiyet, Siberpunk

Kaynakça

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