Eleven and the Cyborg: Gender and Identity in the Intertextual Narratives of Stranger Things

Abstract

This essay examines the relationship between Stranger Things’ intertextual screen and print references and categories of gender and argues that the directors, Matt and Ross Duffer (or the Duffer Brothers) challenge or problematize some of the basic gender roles and assumptions of the source material by the juxtaposition of different storylines sourced from different popular culture references, creating a new hybridized mélange in which both masculine and feminine forces can occupy the same narrative space.

Keywords

• stranger things (television series)
• eleven (character)
• cyborg
• donna haraway
• gender
• power
• 1980s
• intertextuality