Imagining Slaves and Robots in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture - Reinventing Yesterday''s Slave With Tomorrow''s Robot

This study examines the relationship between technology and human nature through popular culture. It illustrates how slaves are created and justified in the imaginations of a "civilized" nation, highlighting the ways in which we domesticate technology and the manner in which the history of slavery continues to be utilized in contemporary society.

List of contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION Reading the Writing on the Wall
CHAPTER 1. Racing Robots and Making Slaves: How the Past Informs the Future
CHAPTER 2. Proslavery Thought and the Black Robot: Selling Household Appliances to Southern Belles
CHAPTER 3. The True Cult of Humanhood: Displacing Repressed Sexuality onto Mechanical Bodies
CHAPTER 4. The Tragic Mulatto and the Android: Imitations of Life in Literature and on the Silver Screen
CHAPTER 5. AI (Artificial Identity): The New Negro
CHAPTER 6. From Fritz Lang to Janelle Monae: Black Robots Singing and Dancing
CONCLUSION When the Revolution Comes
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

About the author

Gregory Hampton is associate professor of African-American literature and is the director of graduate studies in the department of English at Howard University.

Summary

This study examines the relationship between technology and human nature through popular culture. It illustrates how slaves are created and justified in the imaginations of a "civilized" nation, highlighting the ways in which we domesticate technology and the manner in which the history of slavery continues to be utilized in contemporary society.

Product details

• Authors: Gregory Jerome Hampton, Hampton Gregory Jerome
• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.2017
• EAN: 9781498527583
• ISBN: 978-1-4985-2758-3
• No. of pages: 110
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Popular Culture, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, The arts: general issues, ART / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Slavery, Literary studies: general, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / History & Criticism, Slavery & abolition of slavery, Film Theory & Criticism, Slavery and abolition of slavery, Film history, theory or criticism, The arts: general topics