Cyborg bodies and gender politics: A review of feminist cyborg theory in Frankenstein and contemporary fiction

Abstract

This paper examines the representation of cyborg bodies and gender politics in the works of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, and Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me through the lens of feminist cyborg theory. This study utilizes Donna Haraway’s concept of the cyborg, along with other contemporary posthumanist feminist perspectives, to explore how these texts undermine traditional distinctions between human versus machine, nature versus technology, and biological sex versus gender identity. Cyborg bodies are examined as sites of power, resistance, and ethical negotiation that expose how patriarchal systems regulate identity and commodify human beings. By methodologically comparing existing scholarship with textual analysis, this study demonstrates how these literary works redefine what it means to be human by emphasizing ethical agency, emotional consciousness, and social belonging over biological origin. Ultimately, this study shows that feminist cyborg theory is a necessary critical theoretical framework for analyzing the intersections of literature, technology, gender politics, and posthuman identity in the 21st century.