| dc.description.abstract | This thesis will provide a comparison between two texts: one novel from the early nineteenth century, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; and one motion picture that premiered in 2014, Ex Machina. They will be approached from a feminist perspective that focusses on the relation between feminism and the practise of crossing the borders between binary oppositions. Such an approach will prove justified as both texts reflect a socially accepted distinction between men and women, that correlates with the distinction between the domestic and the private sphere; and because both Frankenstein and Ex Machina thematise the practice of border crossing as they concern the production of new ‘unnatural’ life – monsters. Victor Frankenstein produces his creature and Nathan produces Ava, a form of Artificial Intelligence. The question central to this thesis is: “How do Frankenstein and Ex Machina reflect upon female agency through their monsters, and what does this tell us about the reception of border crossing as a feminist strategy by their respective contemporary societies?”.
In order to answer this question, several theories will be combined. These theories will be introduced simultaneous with the execution of a brief historical analysis. This analysis will concern practices of border crossing that relate to feminism in three different historical moments. This analysis will serve to demonstrate the existing interconnectedness between feminism, thinking in binary oppositions and practices of border crossing. At the same time, the analysis will contextualize Frankenstein and Ex Machina, and will connect the theories that form my theoretical framework to each other. These theories include those deriving from Simone De Beauvoir’s Le Deuxième Sexe concerning gendered binary oppositions, Jeffrey Cohen’s Monster Theory, Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto and a detailed analysis on Shelley’s Frankenstein by Mary Poovey, that concerns the dichotomies female-male and domestic-public. The analysis will demonstrate that identifying binary oppositions and transgressing them is, an always has been, a feminist concern. It will also demonstrate that such practices of border crossing produces monsters, as new ideas are introduced that are misfits to society.
The historical analysis will be succeeded by the actual comparison of the two texts that will be executed by means of a close reading focussing on their respective practices of border crossing. This comparison will demonstrate that both Frankenstein and Ex Machina carry out the practice of border crossing as a feminist concern, but that they each view their respective contemporary concept of feminism in a different way. In the case of Frankenstein, the novel reflects the absence of feminism as a concept and as a social movement, while Ex Machina acknowledges modern feminism as theorized by Donna Haraway. Additionally, while Frankenstein argues that the (feminist) practice of border crossing has negative consequences only for the individual who carries out the practice, these practices are implied to affect society as a whole in Ex Machina; with this, Ex Machina carries out a view on modern feminism that seems to warn for the threat modern feminism forms for the established (patriarchal) society. | |
