(Practice) Abstract #2

What it is: The Summary
The Bridges text (Chapter 1 of Die Mensch-Maschine) seeks to trace modern notions of cyborgs and robots to early automata, specifically in their representations by E.T.A. Hoffmann. Notions of "woman" and the "exotic other" are under particular scrutiny in this argument.
Doanne, in dealing with the "gendered cyborg" argues that, in representations of woman-machines of various sorts, reproduction is the issue in question, largely in terms of how it might be regulated. This issue is explored largely through the investigation of various films.
Terms and Concepts
transubstantiation: the idea that a thing may embody some other thing, for example, the body of Christ in a cracker.
preformationism: the (mistaken) idea that, in reproduction, offspring exists largely preformed in one of the parents.
Grazie: as defined in Bridges, a sort of ("natural") grace in movement that is not messed up by consciousness.
fetishism: unusual devotion, usually with sexual connotations.
technophilia: love of technology (or perhaps the concept thereof), as in that of the sci-fi enthusiast.
For Discussion
1. Bridges states, ". . . technologies of reproduction work to regulate the excesses of the maternal." From whence comes this notion of maternal excess?
2. In both texts, eyes are an important theme. What is it about eyes that's so important to the representation of cyborgs and other mechanical humanoids?
3. Why would E.T.A. Hoffmann write a fragment (Die Automate) which, by contemporary accounts, was highly unsatisfactory to the reader? (Could one read into this too much, or might there be something there?)
4. For what reason does Doanne semi-frequently name-drop Freud?
5. Why might technologies such as film and photography be dangerous?
6. According to Bridges, new studies led at the time of the early automata to the concept of the human body as a machine. How have conceptions of the body changed since that time?