Cyberpunk

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-Working on it - Suze+== Defining Cyberpunk ==
 +Cyberpunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that, due to its themes dealing with technology and subjectivity, is frequently discussed in relation to the rise of the posthuman. Cyberpunk is concerned with the implications of cybernetics and deals with [[cyborg]] identity. There are two predominant variations of the [[cyborg]]: the physical cyborg with cybernetic parts built into a biological entity, as well as the cyborg of consciousness, which deals more with the interfaces between human and machine minds. Cyberpunk deals with both, although it is most often associated with the latter. Cyberpunk first appeared in literature, although its themes were later taken up in cinema, music, video games and television. Douglas Kellner explains the origins of the name: “The term ‘cyber’ is a Greek root signifying control, and the term has been absorbed into the concept of ‘cybernetics,’ signifying a system of high-tech control systems, combining computers, new technologies and artificial realities, with strategies of systems maintenance and control.”<ref> Douglas Kellner, “Mapping the present from the future: From Baudrillard to Cyberpunk,” ''Media Culture: Cultural studies, identity and politics between the modern and the postmodern'', (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), 301.</ref> “Cyber” can also be connected to the concept of the [[cyborg]]. Punk, of course, connects to the punk subcultural movement. By aligning cyberpunk with such a subculture, it takes on a much more politically subversive connotation than other forms of science fiction. Kellner explains, “cyberpunk operates outside of the law, rebelling against centralized state and corporate structures in favour of more decentralized use of science and technology to serve the individual involved.”<ref>Kellner, 302.</ref> Thus, cyberpunk possesses a politically charged stance on the uses of technology, particularly when comparing it to other forms of science fiction.
 + 
 +==Key Elements of Cyberpunk==
 + 
 +===Separation of mind and body===
 + A key theme of cyberpunk involves, through direct connection with or downloading the human brain into a computerized cyberspace, marking a distinct separation of the human mind from the body. Michelle Chilcoat explains, “A defining feature of cyberpunk cinema is the fantasy of detachment of the human mind from the mortal body so it can live on indefinitely in cyberspace.” <ref>Michelle Chilcoat, “Brain Sex, Cyberpunk Cinema, Feminism, and the Dis/Location of Heterosexuality,” ''NWSA Journal'', Volume 16, Issue 2, 2004.</ref> Sherryl Vint echoes this, stating “In cyberspace, one IS the mind, effortlessly moving beyond the limitations of the human body. In cyberpunk fiction, the prison of ‘meat’ is left behind.”<ref>Sherryl Vint, “Cyberpunk: Return of the Repressed,” ''Bodies of Tomorrow: Technology, Subjectivity, Science Fiction'', (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), 103 – 104.</ref> In [[The Matrix]], for example, in order to enter into the digital world of the matrix, characters must jack-in to a computer; their bodies lay dormant in the physical world while they are active in cyberspace. When existing in cyberspace, cyberpunk characters are often portrayed as being capable of acts beyond the capability of the physical body, thus suggesting that bodies have been “rendered obsolete by computer technology.”<ref>Chilcoat.</ref>
 + 
 +===Social Decay===
 + Where artifacts such as [[Star Trek: The Next Generation]] represent the future as an almost utopian world where technology has largely erased some of the more unpleasant facets of human existence, cyberpunk represents a grimey social reality, usually set in the near future. The mise-en-scene often consists of dark, dystopic urban spaces and usually some variety of social breakdown. Setting often articulates the “punk” in cyberpunk, since the portrayal of the authorities controlling these spaces can sometimes be both critical and nihilistic. Douglas Kellner explains, “Cyberpunk shows an entire universe already in a state of advanced disarray and moving rapidly toward a frightening future where everything is possible and survival becomes increasingly challenging.”<ref> Kellner, 302.</ref> For example, films like [[Blade Runner]] and [[Strange Days]] present the cityscape as grim, decaying and sometimes strewn with garbage. The utilization of such dismal spaces, as well as flawed governmental systems which have produced them allows, subsequently results in a dramatic shift away from traditional science fiction.
 + 
 +== Cyberpunk and Postmodernism ==
 +Cyberpunk as a movement is largely the product of postmodernity. Its generic characteristics strongly resonate with the key facets of postmodernism. Frederic Jameson states, “[postmodern] producers of culture have nowhere to turn but to the imitation of dead style, speech through all the masks and voices stored up in the imaginary museum of a now global culture.” <ref> Frederic Jameson, ''The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism'', (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992), 20.</ref> What cyberpunk essentially offers is a blending or mixing of various genres, as it draws upon the wider proliferation of signs indicative of postmodernity, with science fiction. For example, the portrayals of urban landscapes have their roots in classical Hollywood film noir. The political nature of thematic elements emerge from the punk movement. In terms of traditional science fiction, it brings technology out of the background of the narrative and into the forefront. Veronica Hollinger states, “The postmodern condition has required that we revise SF’s original trope of technological anxiety – the image of fallen humanity controlled by technology run amok. Here again we must deconstruct the human/machine opposition and begin to ask new questions about the ways in which we and our technologies ‘interface’ to produce what has become a MUTUAL evolution.”<ref>Veronica Hollinger, “Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and Postmodernism,” ''Storming the Reality Studio'', Larry McCaffery ed., (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1991), 218.</ref> Kellner states, “Cyberpunk fiction...involves an implosion of the techniques of modernism and postmodernist fiction, the genre of SF, other popular generic codes. In cyberpunk, the postmodern vision finds its paradigmatic literary expression and disseminates its insights back into the culture from which it derived its energy and edge.”<ref>Kellner, 301.</ref> Indeed, as Kellner indicates towards, it is impossible to consider cyberpunk apart from the postmodern cultural milieu which has produced it. Baudrillard first suggested the importance of the media-inundation of culture with his concept of the simulacra. As postmodernism implodes previously existing boundaries between not just different cultural categories, but the wider classes, it also removes any stark distinctions separating man from machine. Meanings are unstable, constantly shifting through infinite numbers of possibilities. Cyberpunk is very much a product of this hyperreality of mass communications. Postmodernism and cyberpunk are thus inextricably interwoven, and it is of significant importance to consider both when examining examples of cyberpunk text precisely because of the vast numbers of significations at play.
 + 
 +== Criticism of Cyberpunk ==
 +The major criticism of the cyberpunk movement involves its portrayals of its female characters. For such a politically charged genre, its representations of female figures are often problematic. Females are often sexualized, thus gesturing towards the male gaze and female to-be-looked-at-ness described by Laura Mulvey in her canonical essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Vintt echoes this, stating “The repetition of gendered patterns of interaction in cyberspace tends to work to the disadvantage of women, and puts women at material disadvantage as proficiency in technologically mediated interactions becomes more important for employment and social success.”<ref>Vinnt, 105.</ref> Furthermore, female characters are often written into the patriarchal stereotypes of either the virgin or the whore – most usually the latter in the form of the ubiquitous femme fatale character. In a sense, cyberpunk is born from the realms of the computer nerds, and since such subcultures are typically male-dominated, that perhaps in part explains the lack of a femininist message. In Stacy Gillis article “The (Post)Feminist Politics of Cyberpunk,” she offers a post-feminist reading of female figures in cyberpunk and attempts to recuperate cyberpunk from assertions that it is misogynist. She states, “The cyborgic femininities of cyberpunk should be understood as (post)feminist, undermining the potentially transgressive monstrosity of the femme fatale, a key facet of the noir-detective narratives of cyberpunk.”<ref>Stacy Gillis, “The (Post)Feminist Politics of Cyberpunk,” ''Gothic Studies'', Volume 9, Issue 2, 2007: 10.</ref> Furthermore, some examples of cyberpunk do deviate from these types of representations. For example, Kathryn Bigelow’s [[Strange Days]], while it does feature a more conventional femme fatale figure in the form of Faith (Juliette Lewis), the central female character, Mace (Angela Bassett) is not sexualized. Rather, she is portrayed as having more masculine traits and operates as a foil to the feminized main character, Lenny (Ralph Fiennes).
 + 
 +== Select Examples of Cyberpunk ==
 + 
 +*'''Films'''
 +**Akira
 +**[[Blade Runner]]
 +**eXistenZ
 +**[[Johnny Mnemonic]]
 +**[[Robocop]]
 +**[[Strange Days]]
 +**[[The Matrix]]
 +**[[Total Recall]]
 +**Videodrome
 +**Virtuosity
 +*'''Literature''' (Authors)
 +**Gibson, William
 +**Kadrey, Bruce
 +**Shirley, John
 +**Sterling, Bruce
 +*'''Television'''
 +**Cowboy Bebop
 +**Dark Angel
 +**Ghost in the Shell
 +**Max Headroom
 +**ReBoot
 + 
 + 
 +== See also ==
 +*[[David Cronenberg]]
 +* [[Cyborg]]
 +*[[Prosthetic Memory]]
 + 
 +== External Links ==
 +*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk Cyberpunk on Wikipedia]
 +*[http://project.cyberpunk.ru/ The Cyberpunk Project]
 +*[http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/ The Cyborg Information Database]
 +*[http://www.faqs.org/faqs/cyberpunk-faq/ Cyberpunk FAQ]
 + 
 +==References==
 +<references/>

Revision as of 20:57, 14 March 2008

Contents

Defining Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that, due to its themes dealing with technology and subjectivity, is frequently discussed in relation to the rise of the posthuman. Cyberpunk is concerned with the implications of cybernetics and deals with cyborg identity. There are two predominant variations of the cyborg: the physical cyborg with cybernetic parts built into a biological entity, as well as the cyborg of consciousness, which deals more with the interfaces between human and machine minds. Cyberpunk deals with both, although it is most often associated with the latter. Cyberpunk first appeared in literature, although its themes were later taken up in cinema, music, video games and television. Douglas Kellner explains the origins of the name: “The term ‘cyber’ is a Greek root signifying control, and the term has been absorbed into the concept of ‘cybernetics,’ signifying a system of high-tech control systems, combining computers, new technologies and artificial realities, with strategies of systems maintenance and control.”[1] “Cyber” can also be connected to the concept of the cyborg. Punk, of course, connects to the punk subcultural movement. By aligning cyberpunk with such a subculture, it takes on a much more politically subversive connotation than other forms of science fiction. Kellner explains, “cyberpunk operates outside of the law, rebelling against centralized state and corporate structures in favour of more decentralized use of science and technology to serve the individual involved.”[2] Thus, cyberpunk possesses a politically charged stance on the uses of technology, particularly when comparing it to other forms of science fiction.

Key Elements of Cyberpunk

Separation of mind and body

A key theme of cyberpunk involves, through direct connection with or downloading the human brain into a computerized cyberspace, marking a distinct separation of the human mind from the body.  Michelle Chilcoat explains, “A defining feature of cyberpunk cinema is the fantasy of detachment of the human mind from the mortal body so it can live on indefinitely in cyberspace.” [3]   Sherryl Vint echoes this, stating “In cyberspace, one IS the mind, effortlessly moving beyond the limitations of the human body.  In cyberpunk fiction, the prison of ‘meat’ is left behind.”[4]  In The Matrix, for example, in order to enter into the digital world of the matrix, characters must jack-in to a computer; their bodies lay dormant in the physical world while they are active in cyberspace.  When existing in cyberspace, cyberpunk characters are often portrayed as being capable of acts beyond the capability of the physical body, thus suggesting that bodies have been “rendered obsolete by computer technology.”[5]

Social Decay

Where artifacts such as Star Trek: The Next Generation represent the future as an almost utopian world where technology has largely erased some of the more unpleasant facets of human existence, cyberpunk represents a grimey social reality, usually set in the near future. The mise-en-scene often consists of dark, dystopic urban spaces and usually some variety of social breakdown. Setting often articulates the “punk” in cyberpunk, since the portrayal of the authorities controlling these spaces can sometimes be both critical and nihilistic. Douglas Kellner explains, “Cyberpunk shows an entire universe already in a state of advanced disarray and moving rapidly toward a frightening future where everything is possible and survival becomes increasingly challenging.”[6] For example, films like Blade Runner and Strange Days present the cityscape as grim, decaying and sometimes strewn with garbage. The utilization of such dismal spaces, as well as flawed governmental systems which have produced them allows, subsequently results in a dramatic shift away from traditional science fiction.

Cyberpunk and Postmodernism

Cyberpunk as a movement is largely the product of postmodernity. Its generic characteristics strongly resonate with the key facets of postmodernism. Frederic Jameson states, “[postmodern] producers of culture have nowhere to turn but to the imitation of dead style, speech through all the masks and voices stored up in the imaginary museum of a now global culture.” [7] What cyberpunk essentially offers is a blending or mixing of various genres, as it draws upon the wider proliferation of signs indicative of postmodernity, with science fiction. For example, the portrayals of urban landscapes have their roots in classical Hollywood film noir. The political nature of thematic elements emerge from the punk movement. In terms of traditional science fiction, it brings technology out of the background of the narrative and into the forefront. Veronica Hollinger states, “The postmodern condition has required that we revise SF’s original trope of technological anxiety – the image of fallen humanity controlled by technology run amok. Here again we must deconstruct the human/machine opposition and begin to ask new questions about the ways in which we and our technologies ‘interface’ to produce what has become a MUTUAL evolution.”[8] Kellner states, “Cyberpunk fiction...involves an implosion of the techniques of modernism and postmodernist fiction, the genre of SF, other popular generic codes. In cyberpunk, the postmodern vision finds its paradigmatic literary expression and disseminates its insights back into the culture from which it derived its energy and edge.”[9] Indeed, as Kellner indicates towards, it is impossible to consider cyberpunk apart from the postmodern cultural milieu which has produced it. Baudrillard first suggested the importance of the media-inundation of culture with his concept of the simulacra. As postmodernism implodes previously existing boundaries between not just different cultural categories, but the wider classes, it also removes any stark distinctions separating man from machine. Meanings are unstable, constantly shifting through infinite numbers of possibilities. Cyberpunk is very much a product of this hyperreality of mass communications. Postmodernism and cyberpunk are thus inextricably interwoven, and it is of significant importance to consider both when examining examples of cyberpunk text precisely because of the vast numbers of significations at play.

Criticism of Cyberpunk

The major criticism of the cyberpunk movement involves its portrayals of its female characters. For such a politically charged genre, its representations of female figures are often problematic. Females are often sexualized, thus gesturing towards the male gaze and female to-be-looked-at-ness described by Laura Mulvey in her canonical essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Vintt echoes this, stating “The repetition of gendered patterns of interaction in cyberspace tends to work to the disadvantage of women, and puts women at material disadvantage as proficiency in technologically mediated interactions becomes more important for employment and social success.”[10] Furthermore, female characters are often written into the patriarchal stereotypes of either the virgin or the whore – most usually the latter in the form of the ubiquitous femme fatale character. In a sense, cyberpunk is born from the realms of the computer nerds, and since such subcultures are typically male-dominated, that perhaps in part explains the lack of a femininist message. In Stacy Gillis article “The (Post)Feminist Politics of Cyberpunk,” she offers a post-feminist reading of female figures in cyberpunk and attempts to recuperate cyberpunk from assertions that it is misogynist. She states, “The cyborgic femininities of cyberpunk should be understood as (post)feminist, undermining the potentially transgressive monstrosity of the femme fatale, a key facet of the noir-detective narratives of cyberpunk.”[11] Furthermore, some examples of cyberpunk do deviate from these types of representations. For example, Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, while it does feature a more conventional femme fatale figure in the form of Faith (Juliette Lewis), the central female character, Mace (Angela Bassett) is not sexualized. Rather, she is portrayed as having more masculine traits and operates as a foil to the feminized main character, Lenny (Ralph Fiennes).

Select Examples of Cyberpunk


See also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Douglas Kellner, “Mapping the present from the future: From Baudrillard to Cyberpunk,” Media Culture: Cultural studies, identity and politics between the modern and the postmodern, (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), 301.
  2. ↑ Kellner, 302.
  3. ↑ Michelle Chilcoat, “Brain Sex, Cyberpunk Cinema, Feminism, and the Dis/Location of Heterosexuality,” NWSA Journal, Volume 16, Issue 2, 2004.
  4. ↑ Sherryl Vint, “Cyberpunk: Return of the Repressed,” Bodies of Tomorrow: Technology, Subjectivity, Science Fiction, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), 103 – 104.
  5. ↑ Chilcoat.
  6. ↑ Kellner, 302.
  7. ↑ Frederic Jameson, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992), 20.
  8. ↑ Veronica Hollinger, “Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and Postmodernism,” Storming the Reality Studio, Larry McCaffery ed., (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1991), 218.
  9. ↑ Kellner, 301.
  10. ↑ Vinnt, 105.
  11. ↑ Stacy Gillis, “The (Post)Feminist Politics of Cyberpunk,” Gothic Studies, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2007: 10.
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