Posthuman Experiences of Men and Masculinities in Ian Mcewan'S Machines Like Me
Posthuman Experiences of Men and Masculinities in Ian Mcewan'S Machines Like Me
Posthuman Experiences of Men and Masculinities in Ian Mcewan'S Machines Like Me
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Mustafa Büyükgebiz*
Alaaddin Keykubat University, Turkey
*
School of Foreign Languages, Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University
E-mail: [email protected] ORCID 0000-0003-1911-1766
Masculinities A Journal of Culture and Society
Ian McEwan’s 2020 novel Machines Like Me offers such discussions and
reconsiderations of the confrontation between humans and cyborgs.
McEwan presents an alternative 1980s in an alternative universe in
which Alan Turing is still alive and pioneering the advancements in
artificial intelligence. In such an alternate reality, McEwan portrays a
love triangle among Charlie -also the narrator of the novel- in his 30s, a
young woman named Miranda and a robot with artificial intelligence
named Adam. Through this love triangle, McEwan questions the function
of cyborgs with queer bodies in human relations. As a tech addict, 63
Charlie decides to buy the cyborg as soon as it is on sale and considers
Adam as his prodigal son. On the other hand, Miranda is not as
enthusiastic as Charlie and treats Adam as a sex doll. Meanwhile, Adam
swings between being a docile boy and a sexualized machine that
characterizes his in-betweenness and causes a traumatic and painful
state of mind for all three of them. Charlie's attitude towards Adam,
especially towards the end of the novel, and his tendency to violence also
prove the problematic relationship between men and the cyborg.
Therefore, by creating such a contradictory environment, McEwan
scrutinizes the clash between masculinities and the posthuman.
it, “an enhanced cyborg is one where the cyborgian technologies are used
to make the cyborg greater than the human in a specific domain: a better
soldier, a better lover, a superhero” (p.278). The fear of losing
superiority over other creatures is an ancient feeling. However,
cyborgism also generates some new fears and challenges. “We can see
and we can well imagine that cyborgism could be a bridge to different
types of posthumans, some with male bodies of some sort, some quite
genderless, some with new genders based on new sexes” (p.294).
Normalizing diverse gender roles is a significant challenge for hegemonic
masculinity, constructed on heterosexual relationships.
In the novel, Adam is assigned not only gender but also exhibits
heterosexual proclivities and stereotypes associated with that gender.
He has the qualities of masculine physicality and a hyper-masculinized
Masculinities A Journal of Culture and Society
body. However, Adam never escapes the fact that he has a queer body.
Still, he is not accepted as a man since he does not have a biologically
male body despite his hyper-masculine qualities.
Conclusion
their ancestors, have ceased to serve masculinity and its constant effort
to prove itself, and have begun to pose a threat to the patriarchal order.
Work Cited
Balmar, D. and Mellström, U. (2019). Cyborgs and entanglements of
technology, masculinity, and (automated) vehicles. Feministische
Studien, 37:2, 320-334, https://doi.org/10.1515/fs-2019-0030.
Braidotti R. (2016) Posthuman Critical Theory. In: Banerji D., Paranjape
M. (eds) Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures. Springer, New
Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3637-5_2
Butler, A. (2003). Postmodernism and science fiction. In E. James & F.
Mendlesohn (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Science
Fiction (Cambridge Companions to Literature, pp. 137-148).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521816262.010
Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity.
New York: Routledge.
Masculinities A Journal of Culture and Society
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