The Melancholy of the Machine. Doubting Your Own Ghost in the Posthuman World

Abstract

The paper attempts to analyse several science-fiction movies with the purpose of identifying the different processes through which melancholy is depicted in the post-human cinematographic context. This topic will be further elaborated by studying how various characters that belong to the spectrum of artificial intelligence develop a complex, alien sensitivity. The research is aiming to create a better understanding of the dynamics between being human and being machine in science-fiction cinematography. Super computers, robots and cyborgs -they all seem to long after something unachievable and extremely ambiguous: the human element and this struggle generates a profound, exotic melancholy inside the machine.