Descartes' daughters: monstrous machine-women through time

This thesis examines the shifting representation of the female-machine embodied in the image of the female automaton, robot and cyborg. It is argued that the female-machine is an abject, therefore, monstrous-feminine figure as well as the naturalized site upon which cultural anxiety is projected and worked through. My theoretical approach toward representations of the female-machine combines historical (reflection), cultural (ideology), and film studies (repression) approaches toward dominant female-machine images at three key historical moments: the age of the automaton, the age of the machine and the age of the posthuman. Upon examining images of the female-machine through time, three dominant images emerge: the erotic-cyborg, the unruly-cyborg and the emancipatory-cyborg. It is argued that female-machine imagery changes at critical moments in response to shifting relationships between humans and their machines as well as specific ideological concerns of a period reflecting the unique tensions, contradictions, and counter discourses of a specific era.