Loving the Machine: A Transition to Posthuman Intimacy in Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me (2019)
The growing interdependence between humans and machines has been a focal point in recent posthuman studies: scholars such as Rosi Braidotti (Posthuman Knowledge, 2019) have underlined the encroachment of technology on human beings and its subsequent blurring of the boundaries between the two. This i...
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| Publicado en: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc, |
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| Autor Principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
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Études britanniques contemporaines
2026
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| Acceso en liña: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | The growing interdependence between humans and machines has been a focal point in recent posthuman studies: scholars such as Rosi Braidotti (Posthuman Knowledge, 2019) have underlined the encroachment of technology on human beings and its subsequent blurring of the boundaries between the two. This is reflected in Machines Like Me, in which advanced forms of artificial intelligence are embodied by gendered, human-looking androids: the Adams and the Eves. the narrator’s Adam can ‘pass’ as a man thanks to its lifelike physique and behaviour—it is thus neither a human nor a machine, but a hybrid creature that can think, love, and even engage in sexual intercourse. This liminal status invites a posthuman redefinition of intimacy: what does it mean to love, and be loved by, a machine—and what does it reveal about the human self? |
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