Texts in Time Frankenstein and Blade Runner

Barbara Stanners 2011

Genres: marked by features of similarity and difference

Barbara Stanners 2011

Defining Romanticism
Romanticism is not a genre, ideology or clearly delineated style. It is a movement driven by a paradigm shift in thinking, spawned in part by social, economic and political change. Film Noir is similarly a style not a genre Enlightenment rationalism, decorum, order and emotional control was replaced by a new commitment to innovation, diversity, imaginative and emotional Barbara Stanners 2011 expression.

Enormous Social Change: The Impact of Industrialization

Poverty, social marginalisation

Workers in a Tobacco Factory

Mechanisation resulted in dangerous and dehumanizing Barbara Stanners 2011 working conditions and low wages

Major beliefs and ideas

There is no single commonly accepted definition of Romanticism, but it has some features upon which there is general agreement. Encyclopaedia Britannica

diversity and originality over uniformity and rigid forms or patterns equality and egalitarian freedom over constraint and repression sensibility over reason individuality over conformity imagination over intellectualism nature over technology exotic and mysterious over the mundane and known
Barbara Stanners 2011

Romanticism

= Rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization and rationality (Classicism). Reaction against the Enlightenment and physical materialism

Emphasis on the: Individual Subjective Irrational Imaginative Personal Emotional Visionary Transcendental

Valued: Sublime power of nature Emotion over reason Senses over intellect Individuality and eccentricity Genius Solitude The Common man and rural lifestyle Barbara Stanners 2011

The Progenitor
Mary Shelleys archetypal text is generally recognized as the first true science fiction novel. The monster is a product of a scientific experiment gone horribly wrong. Social criticism is embedded within the story she described as her.... Hideous Progeny I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet
Barbara Stanners 2011

The Promethean Theme

The monster is the result of mans tinkering with nature
and his untamed desire to create and apply his knowledge. Patrick Warrick

As science penetrates the secrets of nature, each discovery generates new questions, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein will sound its note of warning. Many scientific developments have provoked references to Frankenstein, a story that, for nearly two centuries, has gripped our imaginations and haunted our nightmares.
Barbara Stanners 2011

The Science fiction Genre is...

dynamic in form, and ever-

changing a combination of what is familiar and what is new marked by diversity and hybridisation value-laden rather than neutral revisionist, re-interpretive or subversive flexible rather than rigid, making use of typical conventions but without set parameters
Barbara Stanners 2011

The Ambiguity of Technology and unchecked Science

We have programmed our own disappearance. Paul Virillio

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The Shifting Role of Master and Servant:

The technology created to serve humanity instead becomes its master. (Murphie and Potts)
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Unchecked Science

Lack of ethical restrictions

Abuse of scientific and technological power Barbara Stanners 2011

Blade Runner

Dystopic themes, film noir, tech noir cinematic style, postmodern issues and concerns
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Contextual Influences - Bladerunner

Ecological Concerns : Id become increasingly alarmed about environmental matters.. Every day I was thinking where are the owls? Where are the trees? Where is the fresh water? Political Concerns: Bladerunner was always meant to be cautionary. For instance, Bladerunner was shot during the dawn of Reaganism. And I was flabbergasted by Ronald Reagan and everything he stood for. Hampton Fancher, script writer discussing his first draft

Barbara Stanners 2011

LOS ANGELES NOVEMBER 2019 The city of Los Angeles 2019 now supports a population of 90 million. The urban landscape is totally synthetic and has suffered urban decay through the economic pitfalls of globalization. The rich have moved completely out of the city or to offworlds. Ridley Scott takes a familiar place, and hypothetically subjects it to the economic, social, and cultural implications of globalization. During the 1980s the United States suffered considerable economic paranoia with the rise of the Japanese economy. The bill boards signify this paranoia.

Barbara Stanners 2011

Marked by violence, corruption, vice and flawed protagonists

Barbara Stanners 2011

Hardboiled Mean Streets Vice-ridden

The Anti-hero investigator: Cynical, violent but also resourceful and principled Barbara Stanners 2011

Science Fiction / Tech Noir / Cyberpunk

Barbara Stanners 2011

Hybridization

of mankind and machine

Cyborg = CYBernetic ORGanism

Combination of human and artificial parts in a single system Popular idea from 1970s Intimate connection to technology High tech in 1980s became more commercialised, domestic & personal
Barbara Stanners 2011

Blade Runner begins with words, a view of the city, and a watching eye . We are told there are humans and a being virtually identical to a human - known as a Replicant.

Barbara Stanners 2011

Hallmarks of Scott's visually stunning style include a detailed, almost crowded set design that is as prominent in the frame as the actors, a fascination with the tonalities of light, a penchant for foggy atmospheres backlit for maximum effect, and a reliance on long lenses, which tend to flatten the perspective.

Barbara Stanners 2011

Replicants
Police Chief: They were designed to copy human beings in every way except their emotions, and the designers reckon that after a few years they might develop their own emotional responses- hate, love, fear, anger, envy- so they built in a fail safe deviceA four year lifespan.

A basic pleasure model.. The standard item for military clubs in the off colony. -Police Chief
Barbara Stanners 2011

Through this act of forgiveness Roy is transformed into a Christlike figure. He professes grief regarding the temporality of his perceptions, experiences, memory, and life. His yearning for extended life gives his death tragic dimensions. His final words to Deckard are cathartic
Barbara Stanners 2011

Frankenstein Context

Romanticism / Gothicism Industrial Revolution French Revolution Scientific discoveries Mary Shelleys personal context

Barbara Stanners 2011

Bladerunner Context

S.F. / Film Noir/Tech Noir Post modernist Globalisation Corporate expansion Scientific and technological advancements Economic rationalism and the Regan Administration Environmental awareness

Shared Themes
Notions of humanity, monstrosity, obsession, creation Value of life Redemption Loss of Innocence Alienation Scientific development versus ethical irresponsibility

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The irresponsibility of Science: Man playing God

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The Creators
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Their Creations

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Comparative Key Scenes

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 sublime and magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of receivingthe glittering pinnacle, the pine woods, and the ragged bare ravine, the eagle soaring amidst the clouds it was rendered sublime by the mighty Alps, whose white and shiny pyramids towered above all
Barbara Stanners 2011

Analytical Response

Greek logicians saw a thesis as a premise or proposition stated and then proved through logical analysis and argumentation. Your thesis argument must use reasoned ideas and insights to show contextual understanding of paired texts. What informed and personalised argument will you provide?
Barbara Stanners 2011