Annotated Webliography
Question 1 : Judy Waczman argues that Donna Haraway's figure of the cyborg has taken on ‘a life of its own’ in popular culture, science fiction and academic writing. In what ways has it been taken up by feminists?
In order to get a brief idea at the very beginning, I start my research with the page of Donna Haraway on Wikipedia and particularly to browse the external links provided there. After several readings, I get the ideas of a numbers of key words, such as cyberfeminism, cyborg feminism and post-gender et cetera, and some key theorists, too. From the reference lists of my initial readings, I highlight some frequently cited articles or authors. Of course, what I do next is to search them on the web. Finally, I come up with a clearer picture of the issues and prepare this annotated webliography. Useful resources that I have accessed are introduced below.
Reference
1. Dixon, Steve (2003). ‘Metal Gender’.
http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=384 (accessed 29 March 2008)
Dixon takes a skeptical position towards Haraway’s ‘Cyborg Manifesto’ and her utopian idea of a post-gender world. He points out that Haraway ‘s ‘treatment of gender is self-contradictory and unconvincing’ with critical quotation from what Haraway has written in the Manifesto. He then suggests ‘metal gender’ but not the ‘gender-blinded’ cyborg of Haraway and he also reckons the discussion of cyborg ‘has been sucked into an increasingly meaningless vortex of capricious and romantic ideas and paradoxes.’ In contrast, his idea of metal gender, as he believes, can produce a ‘tri-gendered corporeality of man, woman and machine.’ Yet metal gender seems a modification of Haraway’s suggestions rather than a completely new idea. Anyway, this article is useful for demonstrating the disputes of Haraway’s cyborg and the ideas follow it.
2. Galloway, Alex (Undated). ‘A Report on Cyberfeminism: Sadie Plant relative to VNS Matrix’.
http://switch.sjsu.edu/web/v4n1/alex.html (accessed 27 March 2008)
As stated by the author, his goal is ‘to give a report on the status of cyberfeminism today, to approach the subject of feminism and technology, in both its historical and ideological dimension.’ This report introduces two major units of Cyberfeminism, namely Sadie Plant, a feminist, and VNS Matrix, a group of artists and activists. Plant suggests that the space of technology is always feminine while VNS Matrix published a Cyberfeminist Manifesto, both stresses the relationship between women and machines. Cyberfeminism’s root is a mixture of Donna Haraway’s arguments, French third-wave feminism and poststructurism. Haraway’s idea of cybernetic organism is used by cyberfeminists in imagining the ‘new cyborg’. Moreover, cyberfeminism is in itself a creature of a post-gender world, which Haraway sees as an opportunity for feminists. In short, Galloway’s report provides another example of cyborg’s life of its own.
3. Privett, Katharyn (2007). ‘Sacred Cyborgs and 21st Century Goddess’.
http://www.reconstruction.eserver.org/074/privett.shtml (accessed 30 March 2008)
This is a very detailed article that presents both the positive and negative respond to Donna Harawya’s cyborg imagery. Privett on one hand interprets the suggestions of Donna Haraway’s in her ‘Cyborg Manifesto’, on the other hand raises a wide range of counter arguments questioning Haraway’s strategies. More importantly, Privett tries to examine the cyborg politics, as suggested by Haraway, in the products of popular culture like Dan Brown’s novel, ‘The DaVinci Code’, as well as Natasha Bedingfield’s popular music, ‘Unwritten’. Privett particularly focuses on the portrayal of Goddess as a critical respond to Haraway’s famous words, “I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess.’ The information of the disputes of ‘Cyborg Manifesto’ outlined in Privett’s article and her analyses of cyborg politics in mainstream culture are valuable resources for getting to know how feminists take the work by Haraway.
4. Scott-Dixon, Krista (Undated). ‘Untitiled’.
http://www.stumptuous.com/comps/sandoval.html (accessed 28 March 2008)
This is a reading notes of Chela Sandoval’s article “New Sciences: Cyborg Feminism and the Methodology of the Oppressed” by Krista Scott-Dixon, a Ph.D of Women’s Studies. This article is indeed a summary of Sandoval’s article, introducing the arguments of the author. Instead of purely responding to Donna Haraway’s famous notion of cyborg feminism, Sandoval further develops Haraway’s thought and applies the cyborg metaphor for various marginalized groups in the United States. Sandoval believes cyborg theory would also be crucial for fields out of feminism. It would be a useful resource for me because Sandoval’s point, as introduced in Scott-Dixon’s reading notes, is exactly an example illustrates the fact that Haraways’s cyborg has taken a life of its own. Haraway seems not expecting her idea would be used for other marginalized groups.
5. Scott-Dixon, Krista (Undated). ‘balsamo’.
http://www.stumptuos.com/comps/balsamo.html (accessed 28 March 2008)
Another reading notes by Scott-Dixon provides a brief concepts of how Haraway’s cyborg influences the development of feminism as point out by Anne Balsamo in her book, ‘Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Woman.’ This article discusses on the book chapter by chapter and thus it can be seen as a very short introduction of Balsamo’s idea. Chapter one of the book, ‘Reading Cyborgs, Writing Feminism’, is an examination of the relationship between cyborg and feminism, which related to my topic closely. With the notes by Scott-Dixon, it will be good for me to include this article in my reference lists.
6. Sollfrank, Cornelia (Undated). ‘A Truth about Cyberfeminism’.
http://archive.constantvzw.org/events/e12/nl/corsolnl.html (accessed 24 March 2008)
This is another article about Cyberfeminism and this article aims to clarify the concept of this idea. According to Sollfrank, there is no definition of Cyberfeminism and ‘everyone has a different concept’ of it. Therefore, the title of his article is an irony because there is indeed no ‘truth’ about Cyberfeminism. Sollfrank also introduces the invention of the idea with reference to Sadie Plant and VNS Matrix but Sollfrank does not trace back to Haraway’s starting point of cyberfeminism, because she has never used the term. However, Sollfrank confirms the divergent uses of the term cyberfeminism. Haraway’s foundation is neglected while the development of cyberfeminism in a diversified way is praised. Here it is another obvious example showing how cyborg has taken on its own way of life, as distinct from Haraway’s own provocation.
As a conclusion, the 6 reference materials introduced above provide information on different aspects, including the responds to Donna Haraway and the introductions to cyberfeminism which follow Haraway’s innovating idea. By referring to various aspects of the discussion of cyborgs and feminisms, I believe it is the very foundation for me to deal with the topic and examine how feminism develops both follow and being far from the trajectory set by Haraway. In short, cyborg theory seems taking on a life of its own, echoes the cyborg imagery appears in popular culture.
By Juliana Chan
3 comments:
This webliography was able to show how the sources have been responded to the topic question, such as "Sacred Cyborgs and 21st Century Goddess" was talking about Haraway’s cyborg in popular culture and "Metal Gender" was about Haraway’s cyborg in academic writing.
If one thing I should give an advice, I would like to see more about the writer’s main argument of this webliography in the conclusion. The reason is I am interesting in the writer’s purpose when she chose these six sources for this post from thousands sources on the internet. Beside, it is a nice webliography to show how diligent in her work.
Although i did not this question, but you give me a very good introduction. But after seeing your weblog, i just have one question to ask, do you think you are a cyborg? Also what makes you feel that way?
After reading the webliography written by Juliana, I can catch up a brief understanding towards the feminists explain the popular culture and gender issues of the cyborg. As she has mentioned one of the reading, "A Truth about Cyberfeminism" by Sollfrank, Cornelia (Undated), it states that the cyberfeminisn has no clear and united definition indeed. However it presents an opposite explanation of cyberfeminisn to Haraway’s.
Throughout the readings that Juliana presented, I can have a diverse views on cyberfeminism and the related issues.
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