FROM BARE LIFE to FEMALE MACHINES a Thesis Submitted For
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BECOMING INDISCERNIBLE: FROM BARE LIFE TO FEMALE MACHINES A STUDY OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF AGAMBEN AND DELEUZE IN THE SPACE OF SCIENCE FICTION A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Emily Venetia Cox Department of English, Brunel University London Abstract 2 The tendency within science fiction to satirise and expose dominant political and social structures works in harmony with Agamben’s paradigmatic, philosophical system, which seeks to similarly expose the functioning of biopolitical structures in the West. Agamben is known for his controversial statement that the concentration camp has become the paradigm of modern western government. A key aspect or bi- product of this process is the situation of bare life – a state of being excluded from the polis that emerges as a result of the suspended nature of the paradigm of western government. This state is one of political denudation, such that governments may sanction the abuse and even killing of certain groups: a chief historical example is the murder of Jews during the Nazi holocaust. Sf novels, particularly the work of Philip K. Dick offer unique insights into the process that produces bare life, partly by exhibiting its own specific examples: positing the inhuman or post-human, androids and even women as instances of such. This thesis argues that Womankind is perhaps the central and most pervasive case of bare life, given her long-standing historical oppression. Furthermore, the representation of women in sf often exposes and in some cases critiques the patriarchal power structures that have allowed women to inhabit this political state. The philosophy of Deleuze offers the much needed potential to break away from this never-ending system of female oppression that the current paradigm of biopolitics facilitates. His and Guattari’s system of becoming and immanence provides a framework for discussing the position of women as, rather than hopeless victims of a stagnant system, one of potential that they term becoming-woman; this process can be manipulated in certain emancipatory directions, freeing women from patriarchal, political practices. The sf figure of the gynoid in particular acts as a zone of indeterminate becoming whose presence in sf popular culture, literature and also in sf video games (e.g. the Mass Effect and Deus Ex series) is a conduit for exploring and imagining alternatives to current modes of being that are not necessarily gendered. I call this process becoming-gynoid, which offers new avenues for exploration in terms of gender and feminist theory both in sf fiction and sf video games. V100 Acknowledgements I would like to express my special appreciation to my first supervisor, Professor William Watkin, for his support, guidance and encouragement throughout the four years of my Ph.D. Thank you for helping me on this journey, for continually inspiring me in my work and helping me understand all the difficult concepts I have grappled with over the years! It has been a privilege to work with you. My sincere gratitude to Dr. Kelly Boudreau, who has acted as my second supervisor and advised me on the game studies portion of my thesis during the last stages of my Ph.D. project. Thank you for making an amazing subject come alive for me, and for welcoming me so kindly to a field I am new to. My thanks go also to Professor Tanya Krzywinska and Dr. Douglas Brown who each temporarily acted as my second supervisors during the early stages of my Ph.D. Thank you for your invaluable advice and help. My deepest thanks to Professor Sean Gaston who, together with Professor William Watkin, first introduced me to continental philosophy, as well as the idea of applying philosophy to literature. Thanks so much to you both for putting together the fascinating modules, Critical Perspectives and Historical Perspectives, which first inspired me to begin a career as an academic. It has been an honour to be your student during my time at Brunel and I will cherish the memory of all those lively lessons, full of philosophical debate. Thank you to Nick Hubble, for advising me in science fiction literature throughout my Ph.D. Special thanks also to Professor William Spurlin, Dr. Jago Morrison and Mr. David Fulton for their support and advice on the modules I have taught on at Brunel as a graduate teaching assistant. I would also like to thank the Brunel Gender and Sexuality Research Centre at Brunel for their hard work in bringing together many researchers in different disciplines throughout the university. Our meetings were a great help to me in my research and lots of good fun too. My greatest and heartfelt thanks to my dear father, Richard Cox, for all the late nights, all the proof-reading, word-processing, love and support. Thank you for always being there for me in so many ways. Words cannot express how grateful I am to my fiancé, Frank Palmer-White, for his never-ending belief in me, support, encouragement and essential cups of tea. I am also deeply grateful to my grandmother, Margrit Elliot, for supporting me – together with my father – both financially and emotionally throughout my Ph.D. To all my family, I really Acknowledgements could not have done this without all of your love, understanding and patience. Thanks for making me believe I could do this. Contents Introduction: Indistinction and Immanence in Science Fiction 7 Chapter 1: Inoperative Simulations: Potentiality and Bare Life 37 in the Works of Philip K. Dick Bare Life and Madness: Identity and Schizophrenia 45 Oikonomia, Signature, and the Invasion of Divine Power 59 Ubiquity in Inoperativity: Finding Potential in the 73 Indiscernible Chapter 2: The Suspended Woman: Sex, Science Fiction, and 82 the Possibility of Bare Life Woman or Womankind? The Feminine in the Ether 87 Exceptions Disguised: the Homo Sacer in the Feminist 98 Dis/Utopia “You can alter our physiology but you cannot change our 118 nature”: Female Machines as Undecidable Women Chapter 3: The Girl in the Machine – From Becoming-Woman 133 to Becoming-Gynoid Female Machines and Female Flesh: Women and/as 144 Automata “Formally a correct response. But simulated”: Scoring 157 Women on the Voight-Kampff Scale Chapter 4: Profane Simulations – Suspension and Becoming in 176 the “Half-Real” Suspending the World: Blasphemous Play in the Fallout 187 Universe The Value of Junk 191 Hiding From the Fallout: Authority in the Vaults 195 Becoming and Avatar: Playing As Cyborgs Among Gynoids 205 in the Deus Ex Games Deus Ex Machina: Playing at the Threshold 215 Conclusion: Playing with Paradigms and Assembling new 230 Formations in Science Fiction, or How to Build a Woman That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later Bibliography 245 List of Figures Figure 1: a visual representation of the signature. 16 Figure 2: a visual representation of Deleuze and Guattari’s 138 molar, molecular and lines of flight. Figure 3: Anna Navarre and a Woman in Black – Deus Ex, Ion 222 Storm, 2000. 7 Introduction: Indistinction and Immanence in Science Fiction In this thesis I shall explore the movement from potentiality/virtuality to actuality in Giorgio Agamben’s system of paradigms and Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of immanence in relation to specific examples of science fiction literature and other sf media. One of the central aims of this thesis is to highlight and explore the nature of gender, when considered as an Agambenian paradigm and as a fundamental and ancient zone of indistinction. I intend to bring together aspects of Agambenian and Deleuzian thought as well as the work of feminist theorists together with sf narratives, in order to form a new and original approach to analysing gender as a biopolitical phenomenon that is as ancient as biopower itself. Arguing from the perspective that sf literature acts as a singular literary and creative space in which narratives can act as sites of suspension and/or becoming, my project will be to use these texts as a platform for an analysis of Agamben’s radical and intricate concept of inoperativity as well as Deleuze’s theory of assemblages and his concept of the Body without Organs (BwO), as products of his wider system of becoming through difference and repetition. I will examine how Deleuze’s understanding of becoming, opens up new ways of envisioning how gender may develop as a cultural and political construct. Though Agamben has done no work on gender himself I believe his system lends itself to an exploration of gender as a site of suspension wherein the categories of male and female are blurred; rather than being distinct categories, they are instead founded on almost entirely fictional concepts of male and female, masculine and feminine. Basing my analysis of gender on Agamben’s claim that all hierarchical oppositions are similarly indistinct, I will argue that the accepted opposition of the categories of male and female is an illusion: that it is a fiction that is unsustainable. In combining the philosophy of Agamben with gender theory I intend to argue that the former is highly valuable in understanding the nature of gender as a fundamental historical paradigm rooted in biopolitical power structures. Most crucially, however, Agamben’s paradigmatic system does not rely on dichotomies of self and other as a means of theorising differences and/or hierarchical practises of oppression. Agamben’s philosophy thinks beyond what has become the dominant way of conceptualising binary power structures, through his concepts of suspension and V100 Introduction 8 indistinction. I will argue that these two terms are invaluable in understanding the nature of gender in Western society, how it has evolved and continues to dominate our society and politics. Before beginning my philosophical analysis of critical sf and gender theory, however, I would like to ground my approach by examining and defining some of the highly complex terms employed by Agamben.