Luna's fourth Call for Papers, Ties That Bind: Love in Fantasy and Science Fiction will be released on Saturday the 1st of August. Here is a chance to discover the 11 brilliant papers you will find in the book.
Today, we would like to introduce you to Tatiana Fajardo Domench (Spain) MLitt in the Gothic Imagination at the University of Stirling. Researcher and Writer.
Presenting the paper: “Falling in Love with an Artificial Being: E. T. A Hoffmann’s “The Sandman” in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and the Blade Runner film series”
Abstract:
The influence of E.T. A Hoffmann’s The Sandman on Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? has not been given enough relevance to date. Both authors depict the attraction their main characters Nathanael and Rick Deckard feel towards an automaton, Olympia, and an android, Luba Luft, respectively. In the cinematic adaptation of Dick’s text, Blade Runner, the relationship between Deckard and the replicant Rachael questions the extent to which feelings can be considered human, as does its sequel Blade Runner 2049 with the inclusion of characters K and Joi as sentient artificial beings. Consequently, depictions of love involving artificial beings generate doubt as to who is human and who is a machine.
This chapter aims to research Hoffmann’s impact on the abovementioned science-fiction narratives. A Freudian approach will be developed to examine the “uncanny” elements in the diverse works. Furthermore, Baudrillard’s concepts of “simulacra” and “simulation” will be considered in order to amplify the analysis.
Tatiana Fajardo is a PhD candidate at the University of the Basque Country researching Patrick McGrath’s Gothic fiction. She completed her MLitt in the Gothic Imagination at the University of Stirling (Scotland), writing her dissertation on the employment of art and science in Patrick McGrath’s novels. She began a blog in which she discusses her literary, cinematic and artistic interests in 2017. Passionate about Gothic literature, her blog post on Dracula’s ‘‘Bloofer Lady’’ was published by Sheffield University. Some of her essays have been translated into Swedish and published by Rickard Berghorn, both on his online Weird Webzine and in his printed books Studier I vart (2018) and Två fantasistycken (2018). These include her analyses of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) and Ingmar Bergman’s Hour of the Wolf (1968). She presented her study of the employment of Romantic poets in the TV series Penny Dreadful (2014-2016) at the IGA conference in Manchester in August 2018. In 2019, her article ‘‘The Bloodlust of Elizabeth Báthory: From the Brothers Grimm to American Horror Story’’ was included in the book A Shadow Within: Evil in Fantasy and Science Fiction by Luna Press Publishing. Tatiana combines her work as a researcher with her job as an English teacher in Spain. For Luna Press Publishing: A Shadow Within: Evil in SFF (2019).
Ties That Bind: Love in Fantasy and Science Fiction
is now in pre-order!