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Saprykina E.Yu. Humanized Artificial Body in the 20th Century Italian Literature. Studia Litterarum, 2020, vol. 5, no 3, pp. 186–199. (In Russ.)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2500-4247-2020-5-3-186-199

Author: E.Yu. Saprykina
Information about the author:

Elena Yu. Saprykina, DSc in Philology, Leading Research Fellow, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: June 19, 2019
Published: September 25, 2020
Issue: 2020 Vol. 5, №3
Department: World Literature
Pages: 186-199
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22455/2500-4247-2020-5-3-186-199

UDK: 821.131.1.0
BBK: 83.3(4Ита)6
Keywords: artificial body, humanization, robot, machine, artificial intelligence, myth, M. Shelley, F.T. Marinetti, D. Buzzati, T. Landolfi, D. Brown.

Abstract

In various epochs, science fiction writers shared an interest in problems related to the humanization of an artificial body and the process of human interaction with a man’s own creation. In the 20th century Italian literature, in particular, this theme emerged already at the dawn of the century (e.g. а futuristic novel by F.T. Marinetti) and was present up until the beginning of the current “age of artificial intelligence.” Fantastic plots of several short stories and novellas by D. Buzzati and T. Landolfi, written in the 1950s and 60s, depicted ambivalent perception of the technogenic civilization and its novelties by the modern cultural consciousness. On the one hand, these works reflected the turning of the machine into an indispensable attribute of the social status of the modern human, the guarant of her private life success and mental health. On the other hand, in science fiction, there is a clear tendency to dramatize the problems and difficulties that the technological age set for a human — in particular, the problem of preserving the privilege of the human consciousness over the increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence of the machine.

References

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