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In the 1968 science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick envisions a world where synthetic beings have become advanced enough to walk among humans unnoticed, blurring the boundary between human and machine. In a later interview, he claims that the inspiration of the novel came from reading a Gestapo officer’s diary, believing that the writing represented a “humanoid other” that is morphologically human and yet is not human in essence. Using critical theory on object-orientation, technology, and identity, I investigate the novel’s use of space, object description, and references to the ersatz to uncover the conditions under which a humanoid other emerges, and what Dick offers as the remedy for our “bifurcated” humanity.
| Advisor: | DeSpain, Jessica |
| Commitee: | Anderson, Jill, Johnson, Matthew S. S. |
| School: | Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville |
| Department: | English |
| School Location: | United States -- Illinois |
| Source: | MAI 58/02M(E), Masters Abstracts International |
| Source Type: | DISSERTATION |
| Subjects: | American literature |
| Keywords: | Ahmed, Sara, Androids, Dick, Philip K., Empathy, Objects, Science fiction |
| Publication Number: | 10844407 |
| ISBN: | 978-0-438-40207-2 |
