Author

Scott Elliott

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Comments

Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies Bridgewater State University Bridgewater, Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English

Degree Program

English

Degree Type

Masters of Arts in English

Abstract

This project is an in-depth exploration and synthesis of three different works: novels Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, and the movie Bladerunner by Ridley Scott. I will be approaching each story as a separate entity unto themselves yet tie them together through the common lens of a need to explore what it means to be human, the treatment of those that fall outside of the norm, and how that leads to villainous representation. While the negative portrayal of disabled bodies has positively progressed since Frankenstein, this problem continues to endure within both art and society. Art is merely one facet of a larger problem but by close reading novels and film I hope to gain a better understanding at the the ways in which the disabled body is vilified as well as what it will take to move beyond and into a place of acceptance. By applying theoretical perspectives from aesthetic theory, posthumanism, and disability studies, I argue how evolving perceptions of the body impact our definitions of the villainous.

Committee/Advisor(s)

Halina Adams

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