Kött, ande, maskin : En undersökning av artificiella kroppar i Frankenstein respektive Neuromancer

Sammanfattning

This paper studies the motif of artificial bodies in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and William Gibson’s Neuromancer, as well as its effects on the characters. By exploring Frankenstein’s Monster and the cyborg Molly Millions through the lens of mainly Donna Haraway’s ”A Cyborg Manifesto”, I have detected the ways in which each character acts like a cyborg or not. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein creates his monster with parts from corpses and carcasses which makes his appearance grotesque. Whereas his body scares people, Molly’s artificial parts are technological enhancements which help her fight against obstacles in her and the other main character’s hunt for the AI Wintermute. I have looked into how, and by whom, each character’s artificial body is constructed, how their bodies trap them, as well as how they attempt to flee their realities. My conclusion is that whilst Molly’s artificial parts help her be free, her female body traps her in a patriarchal position as a woman. The Monster’s artificial body, however, traps him by making him different from biological humans and his only chance at fleeing is by being invisible. Haraway emphasizes that a cyborg challanges dualities such as mind/body, maker/made and active/passive, which both characters do, albeit with varying success. I have therefore found that Haraway’s cyborg-concept is applicable on both Molly and the Monster, despite the fact that they both at times contradict the theory in different ways.