Abstract

This document examines the situation of women in cyberpunk science fiction by looking at how women are represented in the Alien Quadrilogy and in the novel Babylon Babies written by Maurice G. Dantec. The cyberpunk movement has reinvented space as cyberspace; has it also reinvented its image of women? This thesis will examine where women stand and where cyborgs, clones and A.I. (artificial intelligence) stand in relation to the archetypal place occupied by men in our Western society for thousands of years. This is what is called in this work "proteiform dichotomy". The hypothesis is that the dichotomy that separates Man from Woman has not disappeared and that, moreover, it now assimilates cyborg, clones and A.I. with woman as opposed to Man which is still the standard to whom society refers to establish a norm. Chapter 1 defines terms and notions, such as gender, archetype, cyberpunk, cyborgs, and hero and heroine. Chapter 2 gives a brief overview on the works which have been chosen to examine our hypothesis and explains why they have been chosen. Chapter 3 concentrates on two characters which are Ellen Ripley in Alien and Marie Zorn in Babylon Babies . The treatment of these two women is dissected and shows that, however modem cyberpunk films and novel are, their traditional treatment of women is very thinly veiled and that Man still remains the ultimate model compared to whom women are judged. This chapter also includes an analysis of the Alien Queen. Chapter 4 analyses the treatment of cyborgs, clones and A.I. and concludes that they too are compared to Man and therefore assimilated to women. Chapter 5 outlines the religious overtones found in both works studied. Our conclusion is that despite their modernity, these works shows that whatever is NOT man, be it woman, alien, cyborg or clone is a dangerous "otherness" that is monstrous, abnormal, in one word an abomination.