Enforcing Ecological Borders between the Human and the Nonhuman: Adapting Pygmalion’s Benevolent Galatea into Frankenstein’s and Contemporary Monsters
Humans are evolutionary adaptations of other biological organisms. However, socio-cultural adaptations associated with the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution, the rise of monotheism, and the Scientific Revolution, have contributed to a radical ontological separation of the human from the nonhuman. Th...
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| Dans: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Anglais |
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Interfaces
2022
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| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:interfaces_4943 |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:interfaces_4943 https://doi.org/10.4000/interfaces.4943 urn:doi:10.4000/interfaces.4943 en https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/4943 2022-07-20T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/h4il https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Enforcing Ecological Borders between the Human and the Nonhuman: Adapting Pygmalion’s Benevolent Galatea into Frankenstein’s and Contemporary Monsters Interfaces Université Bourgogne Europe info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2647-6754 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1164-6225 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces Geal, Robert film écocritique abjection inconscient politique mèmes Pygmalion Toy Story Terminator religion sélection naturelle film ecocriticism abjection political unconscious memes Pygmalion Toy Story Terminator religion natural selection Humans are evolutionary adaptations of other biological organisms. However, socio-cultural adaptations associated with the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution, the rise of monotheism, and the Scientific Revolution, have contributed to a radical ontological separation of the human from the nonhuman. This false binary opposition facilitates humanity’s destructive behaviour towards nonhuman components of our biosphere, threatening the existence of our species. This article explores the historical development of artistic texts that demonstrate anxieties about transgressing borders between the human and the nonhuman. These texts use repeated narrative and thematic topoi that are adapted to reflect historical attitudes towards human/nonhuman borders. Palaeolithic culture produced art which demonstrated a lack of borders between the human and the nonhuman, but following the Agricultural Revolution, ecophobic cultures produced fictional narratives warning about the monstrous consequences of transgressing human/nonhuman borders. The article traces these ecophobic borders from the polytheistic ‘Pygmalion’ narrative, through the monotheistic/scientific Frankenstein narrative, to contemporary films about human/nonhuman borders such as The Terminator and Toy Story. Les humains sont des adaptations évolutives d'autres organismes biologiques. Cependant, les mutations socioculturelles associées à la révolution agricole néolithique, à la montée du monothéisme et à la révolution scientifique ont contribué à une séparation ontologique radicale entre l'humain et le non-humain. Cette fausse opposition binaire facilite le comportement destructeur de l'humanité envers les composantes non humaines de notre biosphère, menaçant l'existence de notre espèce. Cet article explore le développement historique de textes artistiques qui témoignent de l'anxiété liée à la transgression des frontières entre l'humain et le non-humain. Ces textes utilisent des topoï narratifs et thématiques récurrents qui sont adaptés pour refléter les attitudes historiques envers les frontières entre l'humain et le non-humain. La culture paléolithique a produit un art qui démontrait l'absence de frontières entre l'humain et le non-humain, mais ensuite la révolution agricole, les cultures écophobes ont produit des récits de fiction mettant en garde contre les conséquences monstrueuses de la transgression des frontières entre humain et non-humain. L'article retrace ces frontières écophobes depuis le récit polythéiste de Pygmalion jusqu'aux films contemporains sur les frontières entre humains et non-humains tels que Terminator et Toy Story, en passant par le récit monothéiste/scientifique de Frankenstein,. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
film écocritique abjection inconscient politique mèmes Pygmalion Toy Story Terminator religion sélection naturelle film ecocriticism abjection political unconscious memes Pygmalion Toy Story Terminator religion natural selection |
| spellingShingle |
film écocritique abjection inconscient politique mèmes Pygmalion Toy Story Terminator religion sélection naturelle film ecocriticism abjection political unconscious memes Pygmalion Toy Story Terminator religion natural selection Geal, Robert Enforcing Ecological Borders between the Human and the Nonhuman: Adapting Pygmalion’s Benevolent Galatea into Frankenstein’s and Contemporary Monsters |
| description |
Humans are evolutionary adaptations of other biological organisms. However, socio-cultural adaptations associated with the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution, the rise of monotheism, and the Scientific Revolution, have contributed to a radical ontological separation of the human from the nonhuman. This false binary opposition facilitates humanity’s destructive behaviour towards nonhuman components of our biosphere, threatening the existence of our species. This article explores the historical development of artistic texts that demonstrate anxieties about transgressing borders between the human and the nonhuman. These texts use repeated narrative and thematic topoi that are adapted to reflect historical attitudes towards human/nonhuman borders. Palaeolithic culture produced art which demonstrated a lack of borders between the human and the nonhuman, but following the Agricultural Revolution, ecophobic cultures produced fictional narratives warning about the monstrous consequences of transgressing human/nonhuman borders. The article traces these ecophobic borders from the polytheistic ‘Pygmalion’ narrative, through the monotheistic/scientific Frankenstein narrative, to contemporary films about human/nonhuman borders such as The Terminator and Toy Story. |
| author |
Geal, Robert |
| author_facet |
Geal, Robert |
| author_sort |
Geal, Robert |
| title |
Enforcing Ecological Borders between the Human and the Nonhuman: Adapting Pygmalion’s Benevolent Galatea into Frankenstein’s and Contemporary Monsters |
| title_short |
Enforcing Ecological Borders between the Human and the Nonhuman: Adapting Pygmalion’s Benevolent Galatea into Frankenstein’s and Contemporary Monsters |
| title_full |
Enforcing Ecological Borders between the Human and the Nonhuman: Adapting Pygmalion’s Benevolent Galatea into Frankenstein’s and Contemporary Monsters |
| title_fullStr |
Enforcing Ecological Borders between the Human and the Nonhuman: Adapting Pygmalion’s Benevolent Galatea into Frankenstein’s and Contemporary Monsters |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Enforcing Ecological Borders between the Human and the Nonhuman: Adapting Pygmalion’s Benevolent Galatea into Frankenstein’s and Contemporary Monsters |
| title_sort |
enforcing ecological borders between the human and the nonhuman: adapting pygmalion’s benevolent galatea into frankenstein’s and contemporary monsters |
| publisher |
Interfaces |
| publishDate |
2022 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/interfaces.4943 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/4943 |
| _version_ |
1877293111766417408 |