ciee screen cultures

feminist interventions i
 the monstrous feminine

• re-defining the mother as the archaic mother:

(re-)productive, (re-)generative, all-encompassing,
uncontrollable, dangerous (how?)

• re-imagining the origin of life, and the attendant man/

woman dichotomy

• the figure of the mother is key in the process of identity

formation: self vs. (m)other

• in the horror film, this process is replicated on screen

through the act of not-looking
 woman as other

• the category of woman serves as the negative

other to man: she is womb/passive/negative; he is
penis/active/positive

• culture depends on the establishment (and

maintenance) of this dichotomy/dualism

• woman is denied a history, a shared understanding

of her past, a common ground for solidarity

• who is qualified to speak on woman’s behalf?

 the cyborg

• the cyborg is a hybrid of machine and organism, a natural

border-crosser

• the cyborg does not emerge from any original unity; she is
always already multiple

• the cyborg signals the breakdown of three interlocking

dualisms: human/animal; human/machine; organic/inorganic

• science fiction allows us to imagine the cyborg as a political

agent

• caveat: the burden(s) of being a cyborg

 close viewing i: alien:
resurrection/the opening scene
close-up: ripley’s birth
cv ii: a:r/the other ripleys
cv iii: a:r/call’s return
cv iv: a:r/witnessing a birth
cv v: star trek: voyager/an
audience with the queen
close-up: mass(ive) femininity
cv vi: st:v/seven’s close
encounter
cv vii: st:v/tangling with the
queen
cv viii: st:v/seven’s choice