Tropicalizing Frankenstein in Latin America

Frankenstein is not an exclusive character belonging to the realm of the Gothic narrative, but a vivid element that has evolved and adapted to diverse social contexts and geographies. Mary Shelley's work has endured the passing of time and now is a symbol of the popular culture. It has appeared...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Ramírez Plascencia, David
Format: article
Publication Date:2020
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:224407
Online Access:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/224407
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/athenea.2647
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Latin America
Artificial Intelligence
Robots
Frankenstein
Ethics of science
América Latina
Inteligencia artificial
Ética de la ciencia
Description
Summary:Frankenstein is not an exclusive character belonging to the realm of the Gothic narrative, but a vivid element that has evolved and adapted to diverse social contexts and geographies. Mary Shelley's work has endured the passing of time and now is a symbol of the popular culture. It has appeared in numerous movies, TV series, comics and it has inspired many other shows and literary works. In our Internet era, it is present across "memes" and other multimedia staff shared on social media. In this paper, I look to understand Mary Shelley's Frankenstein influence on people's attitudes regarding technology and science, particularly artificial intelligence and robots. How the negative visions and fears about the misuse of science to break traditional moral and religion boundaries are still present in popular culture, including in developing regions like Latin America. Fieldwork will be focused on reviewing several Latin American newspapers and magazine articles in Spanish and Portuguese published on the Internet. As final outcomes will show, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein still continues influencing people's imagination about science and technology, even in technically less developed regions.