Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


bgsu1339976082.pdf (2.17 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Literary Laboratories: A Cautious Celebration of the Child-Cyborg from Romanticism to Modernism

Lupold, Eva Marie
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1339976082

Abstract Details

2012, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, English/Literature.
Constructions of children and constructions of cyborgs in literature and other textual representations are very similar; both identities are liminal since they exist outside the realm of adult human experience and both identities also serve as vehicles through which adults can experiment with their own conscious or unconscious fantasies or fears. Because of these similarities, the figure of the child and the figure of the cyborg frequently become linked in popular culture. Although the figure of the cyborg offers many liberating opportunities for alternative hybrid identity formations (as posthumanist Donna Haraway has pointed out), linking the figure of the child with regressive constructions of the cyborg can have many harmful consequences. Often, the figure of the cyborg becomes a site for the fears and phobias of adults afraid of the future. And since children are already sometimes marginalized in adult texts, or get used as adults experiment with their own anxieties about the present or the future, linking the figure of the child with the figure of the cyborg in some situations can theoretically create a doubly-differentiated “other.” Arguing that the merging of the figure of the cyborg and the figure of the child has become much more popular in recent decades, this project will attempt to analyze the evolution of the child-cyborg from Romanticism to Modernism by discussing representations of the “child-animal cyborg,” the “preternatural child-cyborg,” and the “mechanized (or robotic) child-cyborg.” It will then conclude by interrogating from a sociological perspective how regressive representations of child-cyborgs may affect real child bodies, positing that more progressive constructions of child-cyborgs are both possible and desirable.
Erin Labbie (Committee Chair)
Piya Pal Lapinski (Committee Member)
192 p.
American History; American Literature; Animals; Art History; British and Irish Literature; Early Childhood Education; Ethics; European History; Evolution and Development; Families and Family Life; Film Studies; Gender Studies; History; In; Individual and Family Studies
children; cyborgs; donna haraway; romanticism; william blake; songs of innocence and experience; victorians; henry james; the turn of the screw; carlo collodi; the adventures of pinocchio; aldous huxley; brave new world; orson scott card; ender's game;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lupold, E. M. (2012). Literary Laboratories: A Cautious Celebration of the Child-Cyborg from Romanticism to Modernism [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1339976082

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lupold, Eva. Literary Laboratories: A Cautious Celebration of the Child-Cyborg from Romanticism to Modernism. 2012. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1339976082.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lupold, Eva. "Literary Laboratories: A Cautious Celebration of the Child-Cyborg from Romanticism to Modernism." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1339976082

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1339976082
2,731
© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.