Wits School of Arts (ETDs)

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Browsing Wits School of Arts (ETDs) by Author "Duncan, Catherine"

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    Techno-Orientalism in Science Fiction: A Resistant Reading of Ex Machina
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-02) Schoeman, Samantha; Duncan, Catherine
    Techno-Orientalism is a prominent issue in science fiction media. It perpetuates and propagates negative stereotypes about Asians across a broad audience, tangibly affecting and shaping society’s perceptions. This research focuses on challenging and resisting the dominant portrayal of Asians in Alex Garland’s Ex Machina (2015). I interrogate Ex Machina in a way that centres the female Asian character, Kyoko, using methods of resistant readings and implementing the ‘oppositional gaze’ strategy put forth by bell hooks. My analysis shows how the cinematic apparatus of the film constructs the problematic techno-Orientalist stereotypes, and how viewers can use an oppositional gaze, cyborg theory, and feminist film theory in a resistant reading. In reading the film against the grain, I found that the spectatorial experience changes, allowing for the emergence of different pleasures and compensations not offered through traditional looking relations between film and viewer. I argue that these strategies empower the marginalised characters, affording spectators of the film to glean different and more defiant impressions without detaching from the film’s canon. I further suggest that resistant readings and employment of the oppositional gaze offer an opportunity for more diverse voices and opinions to document and share their critiques and experiences with problematic media representation. This opens the door for further discourse challenging harmful, stereotypical characterisations, thereby growing the field of film studies.