Cyborg Cinema and Contemporary Subjectivity

This book breaks new ground in providing an in-depth critical assessment of cyborg cinema, arguing that it remains one of the most intriguing and provocative cycles to have emerged in contemporary screen culture.

What are cyborgs? How have they been represented in cinema? And why have they generated such an astonishing degree of critical and popular interest? These are the questions that underpin this book. It asks what relevance the cyborg has in exploring the nature of human identity, questioning our relationship to technology and speculating on envisaged prospects for the future. It also goes beyond other work in the field by not only evaluating individual texts but addressing what cyborg films have in common, acknowledging the development they have undergone over the last thirty years, and speculating on the reasons for this transition. The cinematic cyborg''s continued appeal is testified by the decision to revive the Terminator franchise as well as other releases that similarly explore ''posthuman'' potential, including the X-Men films, the Matrix trilogy, Iron Man and Avatar. In referencing such titles and the legacy they draw upon, this study is not only the most up-to-date analysis of cyborgs and their variants in film, but also the first book to comprehensively assess cyborg cinema as both an important sub-genre of SF and a definitive cycle in its own right. Fully revised and updated since its initial publication in 2005, this paperback edition also includes reference to the cyborg''s transition to television, comparing Star Trek''s Borg with Battlestar Galactica''s Cylons, as well as discussing series such as Bionic Woman, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse in order to assess the continued fascination held by fictional cyborgs, their contribution to our sense of subjectivity, and the way they reflect a host of contemporary concerns.