Title of the article:

THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE “ROBOT`S” IMAGE FROM “MECHANICAL SIMILARITY” TO THE “ROBOT-HUMAN” (K. CAPEK, E. I. ZAMYATIN, O. HUXLEY, A. ASIMOV)

Author(s):

Kseniya K. Maslova

Information about the author/authors

Kseniya K. Maslova — Applicant, Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospekt, 32-A, 119991 Moscow, Russia. E-mail: ksema_maslova@mail.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2018

Volume

Vol. 49

Pages

Рp. 161–170

Received

April 30, 2018

Date of publication

September 15, 2018

Index UDK

821.162.3+82.091

Index BBK

83.3(0)

Abstract

K. Čapek's drama “RUR.” gives us an example of plot that is quite traditional for the Western European literature of the XX century: the uprising of machines against the man who enslaved them and/or the death of man in the consequence of industrialization. However, we witness the rise of a new science fiction hero — a robot. The novelty consist not only in the originality and extraordinary accuracy of the name (the roots we can easily find in the Czech language — the word “robota” means “hard labor”, “hard work”, “serfdom”), but in the fact that robots possess not only mechanical likeness of a man, but also human flesh and blood, therefore, coming to be complete replacement of man. This is illustrated in terms of its transformation from the actual “mechanical similarity”, through the example of a robot created by Karel Chapek, to the image of “robot-man” in the world literature. The article explores the image of robot drawing on the novels of E. I. Zamyatin — “We”, O. Huxley — “Brave new world” and a number of stories by A. Asimov — “Liar” and “Evidence” are analyzed. The image of “robot” is not always used literally, i.e. only as a mechanical being — a human replacement. Sometimes we meet a new concept — “human-robot”: a person deprived of human qualities and acting according a certain program “given from above”, who lost his history, the experience gained over a thousand years of existence of mankind, transmitted from the ancestors to new generations, above all, through family education. Once discovered by Chapek, new hero not only became successfully established in literature, painting, sculpture and music, but continues to be subject to evolution from author to author: from the image of actual mechanical something, through the image of “human-robot” with a minus sign to the image of “robot-new man” with a plus sign.

Keywords

literary context, literary influences, fantasy, revolt of the machines, “mechanical similarity”,“transformation of the image”, R.U.R., Karel Capek, E. I. Zamyatin, O. Huxley, A. Azimov, “We”, “Brave new world”, “Liar”, “Evidence”, robot, “robot man”.

References

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