Twentieth-century Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser argued in his famous essay Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses that capitalism reproduces itself by interpellating individuals as subjects. For Althusser, the subject has a dual definition: a person who imagines him or herself to be a free subject who then chooses capitalism, and a person who, once they have chosen capitalism, gives up their free will to the Subject (Law, God, Authority, the State). This dual definition of the subject mirrors the dual definition of robot. A robot is both a mechanical being that moves on its own and a person who acts in a mechanical way. By situating humans as not robots, I argue that narratives and performances of robots function as tools for the reproduction of capital. This dissertation examines four historical moments in the United Statesthe 1939 New York World's Fair, the 1960s automation debates, the end of the Cold War, and the turn of the millenniumto argue that robots in performance serve an important ideological function: to convince us that we, unlike robots, are free subjects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-07012017-232307 |
| Date | 10 July 2017 |
| Creators | Phelan, Benjamin Michael |
| Contributors | Freedman, Carl H., Fletcher, John H., Sikes, Alan W., McCann, Bryan |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07012017-232307/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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