Les machines pleurent aussi… Larmes et émotions artificielles dans L’Ève future (1886) de Villiers de l’Isle-Adam et Blade Runner (1982) de Ridley Scott

Abstract

This study examines the ostensibly paradoxical link between machine and emotion as imagined by two very distinct fictions: Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s symbolist novel L’Ève future (1886) and Ridley Scott’s dystopian science-fiction movie Blade Runner (1982). Both texts develop the motif of an android equipped with emotionality, more specifically two weeping machine-women: Hadaly and Rachel. Their ability to simulate feeling, or to make others experience emotions, is caught up in a contradictory dynamic that shines through in both corpuses, despite their chronological gap: on the one hand, the emotional machine represents the apogee of bio-robotic engineering, which in turn is motivated by a capitalist and patriarchal desire to subjugate women. On the other hand, the two female robots, through their ability to express emotions, claim a form of autonomy that would put them above their male creators.

Keywords

• culture médiatique
• stéréotypes féminins
• L’Ève future
• Blade Runner
• larmes
• émotions