Abstract
David Cronenberg is a Canadian film director whose films are categorized as “body horror,” highlighting the mutated human bodies transformed by technology. Critics mainly interpret the destruction of the technological body in Cronenberg’s films as technophobia. On the other hand, criticisms of Cronenberg are often divided into two camps: one is to highlight his Canadian identity, and the other is to contextualize Cronenberg in the horror genre, employing psychoanalytical and feminist theories to discuss his films. Drawing on theories based on the binary presumptions such as “repressed/the return of the repressed” and “castrated male/ monstrous-feminine,” they view Cronenberg’s technological body as irrecoverable monster against civilization. And in this regard, Cronenberg is criticized as a misogynist for his use of female imagery. The thesis attempts to affirm Cronenberg as what Deleuze and Guattari call the “local absolute,” contending that he still maintains his Canadian consciousness even if his films are marketed globally. The thesis also applies Deleuze and Guattari’s critical concepts of the body without organs and becoming in analyzing the technological bodies in Videodrome and eXistenZ. The reason for employing Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts is that they illuminate the aspects of Cronenberg’s technological body in relation to gender and power relationship, which are largely ignored under the binary presumption of psychoanalytical and feminist theories. By attending to the desiring production of Cronenberg’s technological body, the thesis shows that Cronenberg’s view of technology leans neither to technophobia nor to technophilia, but is rather complex and ambiguous. This thesis therefore has four chapters. The Introduction examines Cronenberg in relation to the Canadian cinema and contextualizes Cronenberg in the horror genre, reviewing criticisms of him in relation to psychoanalytical and gendered theories. Chapter Two, “Videodrome,” reviews essays on Videodrome and draws on Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts to analyze the film with respect to image, gender, power and subjectivity. Chapter Three, “eXistenZ,” mainly draw on Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the body without organs to discuss three aspects of the film that critics tend to highlight: its figuration of virtual reality, sexual economy brought about by technology, with the disease and death motifs in the film. Chapter Four, “Conclusion,” recaps the similarities between Cronenberg and Deleuze, and concludes Cronenberg’s technological imagination in relation to the technology in our times.