Creating the Ideal Posthuman Body? Cyborg Sex and Gender in the Work of Buzzati, Vacca, and Ammaniti

In recent years much critical attention has been focused on the figure of the cyborg or cybernetic organism: a hybrid being that evolves where the boundaries between human and machine are open to transgression.1 Yet despite its implicit promise of an “enhanced” physique and superior reasoning abilities, to what extent can (or should) we consider this figure as radical, subversive and innovative? In an Italian context, researchers such as Antonio Caronia have theorized posthuman or cyborg phenomena for an Italophone readership, chronicling their development across the centuries and mapping their multifaceted morphologies as central figures of science fiction. However, as is the case with another recent Italian publication on this topic (Vincenzo Tagliasco's Dizionario degli esseri umani fantastici e artificiali) Caronia's attention is directed beyond Italy, to Anglophone—and in particular North American—cultural production. Consequently, both texts markedly privilege Anglophone literature, film and criticism to the exclusion of Italian discourses and cultural artefacts.2 The work of Giuseppe O. Longo (Il nuovo Golem and Homo technologicus) also offers a theoretical engagement with the relationship between humans and technology, but the only Italian literary texts to which significant reference is made are Longo's own. In contrast, this article endeavors to redirect critical attention onto other Italian sources, in an initial attempt to identify and analyse aspects of Italian engagements with the cyborg and bring them into dialogue with Anglophone theoretical work.From the anxieties about mechanised men and women in Massimo Bontempelli's Minnie la candida (1927), to Primo Levi's probing of the golem myth in “Il servo,” twentieth-century Italian literature offers a Rich, if underexplored, array of cyborg characters which both echo those to be found in Anglophone texts and can be been seen to embody and exemplify concerns emanating from a specifically Italian cultural context. Focusing on cyborg figures in three texts—Dino Buzzati's Il grande ritratto (1960), Roberto Vacca's Il robot e il computer (1963), and Niccolò Ammaniti's short story “Ferro” (1996)—this article identifies and analyses approaches to a series of sex/gender issues and attempts to trace the positions assumed by the authors in question back to earlier influential works. More specifically, I question the degree to which these works can be read as encouraging progressive rather than normative attitudes. I argue that despite purporting to convey futuristic innovation that challenges conventional notions of gender roles and identity, these narratives show the influence of problematic ideologies proposed by late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century figures such as the Futurists and the criminologist Cesare Lombroso—writers whose work provides a sometimes disturbingly relevant point of reference for this article. Thus the texts analysed allow us to trace the shadows of key Italian thinkers in works that might more readily be seen as linked to Anglophone traditions of science fiction.This article investigates a number of interrelated issues: the ways in which cyborg narratives portray sexual dynamics between cyborgs and “non-enhanced” humans; the erotic charge of fusion with technology; how such narratives engage with mind/body dualism; the ways in which dominant understandings of gender roles and sexed bodies are insistently replicated through fictional accounts of cyborg bodies; representations of male desire for creative power. I have chosen the texts under consideration because they allow me to compare diachronically a series of male perspectives on the sexing, gendering, and eroticization of both male and female cyborgs, sexual interaction with cyborg figures and narrative dramatisations of both the mind/body split and fusion with technology. The reference to “cyborg sex” in my title is meant to indicate both sexed bodies and sex with cyborgs. Unlike “cyber sex” that involves the willful shrugging off of gender, sex and sexual orientation since the vast majority of individuals who enter the virtual dimension of MUDS—Multi-User Domains—do so under an assumed identity (see Anne Scott Sørensen), representations of “cyborg sex” often strive to reinforce or replicate more normative human practices. A key question here is why this might be so in an Italian context; why do even recent texts resonate so strongly with the supplanted authority of Lombroso, for example?As a guide to subsequent observations, and in an effort to further contextualize my remarks in relation to existing and ongoing intellectual debate, I preface my considerations of the selected texts with a brief outline of the approaches to sex, gender, and the erotics of technology that inform this article.My principal concern is our often erotically charged relationship with technology, especially in relation to sexual dynamics between biological human and cyborg beings. I explore the sexual draw of machines whose status hovers on the shifting boundaries that psychoanalysis has drawn between conscious and unconscious, ego and id, and which inhabit the unheimlich overlap of self and other. Many of the sexed and gendered tensions that mark more contemporary conceptions of libidinal relationships with technology are clearly evident in the writings of the Futurists. For example, besides bombastically celebrating the “bellezza nuova” and speed of motor vehicles, Marinetti describes the loving care with which a train driver washes “il gran corpo possente della sua locomotiva” with “le tenerezze minuziose e sapienti di un amante che accarezzi la sua donna adorata.”3 Arnaldo Ginna similarly confuses the anthropomorphization of the car as a phallic extension of its male driver with the sexualization of the car as a female vessel. In the same paragraph he writes that the car has become the necessary prolongation of the worker's sensations, but that the car may soon be the only lover we desire (qtd. in Verdone 91). I argue with to the texts this of boundaries between phallic and the other the development and of through a of In to of self which loving is that of self which from and with an more specifically to the the that machines are as of and desire our sexual and off of about and that in as a for desire by of the the of machines an of sexual the fusion of with an in a which the of the between self and the only are into the but is also a desire for the to be by technology. of and of the influential and in the is to mark the between cyborgs as and humans that are so being both and However, critical attention is to the between the of human and and analyse the that a being to from of the to the as as the for work discourses of mind/body that have with other of that of the and the as cyborg narratives engage with these or often a rather than a of the of and I consider the male of dynamics on a of in relation to and explore anxieties the and of creative and power. issues problematic of the development of from early in which he describes how female than their male and often to through The of this earlier of our an that to the of may della di a biological for that della e la della and that women are of the female for readily into a that science from by the as or che a di Il corpo The for of this desire in Italian literature is found in il to the female to the of the male is by in a of male of I male science narratives to rather than their and creative for male cyborg identity, the texts analysed in this or an in sexed bodies and gender and the ways in which both sexual and and are onto cyborg figures in a of despite attempts to reinforce gender as an of human identity by extension cyborg the and of cyborgs also to the and of gender sexual orientation and The to the cyborg being with both sexed and gendered is a extension of to and human bodies and in the same article as to what such cyborg as the cyborg in literature as an onto and into aspects of our human can be and anxieties and to be through of or has been that di un such a in other contemporary concerns are the to off the that our of However, science also considerations of or that are by the of a particular The of to a more engagement with contemporary the of a and a of often in the of these to cyborg that the can be as a of that works to sex/gender or as an of such if as from being of the from which science be analysed to which of cyborg and the dynamics of the in which they both and to a critical which I to is seen by as about a for a key I male science and female of or more specifically a male computer of a female sexual desire and the relationship between and The of the as and by as is a in an in a in the has been by a of male of has a with the in a car he is by both and the desire to the human Thus he an to a in The is a that into the with we that this is only a to the female a that even science in Buzzati's is a of the desire to and the of and relationship between and of is through a gender the of male female that is from and in can be seen to from of with the of the of with of science the of for science is and that can be to the of that gendered rather than by issues to which I to as of both and as is and under a machine that in and the to on a for of the portray as a is and is on male for to in desire that be seen as a of for that of is only a so the machine is with a degree of is is a and is the of such which for the of a self can be from that the of technology with female male and an desire to the cyborg by the female is as a and by a as by the robot in the of on and might argue that the is to by the from the and with is from to of for a to be and that this is only is to the to of the of the the to the on so is for the is the in which to and the is into of the of the and the of the in a sexual has been that the computer is and both and of they what has that has been by to to an that for the of sexual also the extent of and erotically relationship to technology, as of a machine that desire Buzzati's work an of as with is as on notions that with and and of the male lover the of as the of the from the male rather than on to the is However, also much to the problematic of the in cybernetic and to the of conceptions of the work on the the of the as has In The of and that of human with computer technology our bodies In a can on the these of as a that we to a to the of with which we are in an attempt to to be and to its Many approaches to the question of cyborg bodies argue for a of the the a of into In with contemporary to because of the of a the of of for be here is that in to the of the self as by the that ego is and a by of the of the to this a self a be only but is on critical to Buzzati's and the figure of the male he have seen Il grande ritratto as to the of the early years relationship between humans and but through engagements with the rather than with work has been seen to with texts by early such as and who and of identity to Buzzati's of The Italian of the is on “il della e della but especially on “il corpo to for these are seen as in the so that are analysed as of the which is that from of to question the and of for the in an rather than the other through which to is and is critical engagements with Buzzati's beyond remarks on the status of as a the of gender has been we read that self is a of in and that the of the is degli The of the male the and significant gender between male and female of The of male of are further as this is to technology are by Buzzati's a technology that e che a un from its and onto the critical accounts of the from the male of that by the desire to that of its the desire to this which has the I this female cyborg with a male I argue that as and female cyborgs are as of male as both by and on male their male might be as to which male of have been by normative gender In recent women have been to become cyborg through their bodies with a vast array of in to their and be from and to the male In contrast, rather than to gender, the male cyborg human desire for a is to the cyborg in Vacca's with such as of Vacca's is a on with contemporary this central of and is by to the Italian that the of cyborg he di the of the a to that in of a cyborg as of as as a of the virtual of the and an of fictional cyborgs as of a particular with to gender, sex, and is a computer who to the an for the for and the in with a series of a of In to the of on on but to to is evident from the sexual interaction is a key in the as sexual and relationships between humans and humans and cyborgs, as as technology for and the of the posthuman a of the in is to identify and a number of that he to the of an the of a he the to an to Thus he is to in as might them on a and also to by into car In so he a beyond the made by that the is an extension of the and their that is an extension of the central of an in the narrative the virtual of the in to with of to to with an a who has a robot is the that as and into an by by as a rather female made to the is as he is more human than and more sexual between and In interaction between these characters is who the for as to male from conventional gender or sex mind/body Vacca's and human to and of the in attempts to machines has mechanised a human are to be but to engage in Thus is on since he is a of and a of as to However, that is more human than a on with the to by further he to consider to In are to those of the human who to the of they their the to are the by female of the or to the human to contrast, is or in of to a that to can be seen as an attempt to the of early the is to its and the might be through a of which in and and the of a in which and from and are to rather than of sexual with can be seen to in the that he attempts to by sexual and on as a that a of sexual is to to further of and this as the to to is on more the with he is of what to do and so on from a to be made to the of a series of Thus is as the of in and status is as a of male that the other because he has been to its or to be and to that is to with of to the of the and is to be if to their such he provides an case in the ongoing between and cultural about the of the and in our are for a of and Vacca's male cyborg the of this is in with cybernetic to for by di to Il cyborg to enter a sexual in to the boundaries between the human and the a of sexual in the on from of sex and of sexual also of the by that to an to in be from as this is and are beyond the A female cyborg as may be to since women have been by their but a male cyborg can from of as do characters in literature, through “il della della or by “il della desire to from self has for as a he is also to as we the of the on a of as an to for to a that and the for this only of allow characters to on the for this However, into the that in the through in or of the that he has or The he in as self from unconscious, from the of ego and that is in the of and in the of self and sexed In of of the ego as in the by development by of which in engagements with the In of the onto the between a to the self on which our and and them from our of a contrast, I from of to consider a female cyborg whose from a desire to between I argue that in both fusion of human and and the offers of this through sexual is of the in in the whose to literature and sexual “Ferro” is a rather whose male of in of and of women are with and he to the as the for a posthuman as he car through the of other car a of as he the on of the car as a a of sexual that Ammaniti's narrative this cultural from the the car as an extension of the sexual in an echo of the by the he and to allow the of both technology and the female as as an about the are the where he women of e he a to a where attempts sexual with are by the of who and with a However, that to the the to have but with other who in the and from the he has the is into the where he the to in the is a of with in of and a of and the is as However, he that of car those he has on he the story of the which in this and how a to The further and on of and to the he technology and can to with charged relationship to from of from car to between and with technology. this fusion is made relationship to is as if as if about the of human sexual interaction he that sex, is is a of sexual a of car in the of that have the car into our of and to with in a more a is a desire to with Ammaniti's story can be seen to this with an as the and from the only to the has to The a to a a where and However, be that in is from mechanised as a by a of and that the to have from the is a a of as sex or the only roles to is is in with on women and the of and in a of is me about this is that cyborg as an that a of mechanised to beyond as sexual or attempts to from only as another a who only as a sexual In a where technology is as and a as gender we the of as for its of the cyborg as a as a multifaceted to the of contemporary is a figure as the of and For the offers a of gender and as of a in to the Italian of the cyborg as an to and conceptions of the of its Ammaniti's work an normative female as if to for futuristic the story is on rather of the in by a However, rather than the of this narrative a myth of female that only to the female in question from to by the have been as that texts by the do normative notions of Ammaniti's a rather of female and male of critical engagements with the do the of female characters by male For example, that as of which through and sexual and that women are as in that they to the but the of as a to normative has been as a in contemporary science and fiction. in the for or the such texts are in the and a with other of conventional which is by the of the by such as The The and the phenomena can be in Italian in un di che in e golem di e e il il e of the show as to be in and often from of female identity through interaction with cyborgs in for the which he with and The so that in its in and are in and other il is as of our we the of that what with the as of by the in in our is is in the of the the is a of and the of to is di di e he the has the futuristic and of cyborg further that conceptions of onto the as is for or even to the despite the Ammaniti's is by id, rather than a male of a self from the influence of the In a these are for for the in which of are as as the male bodies that are to be their for attempts to such the of be that we about the as by and Ammaniti's can be seen to the of their as futuristic the in an of the by as an to di that is to its initial or but insistently to be often work to the into a narrative this in the analyses in this article that the fictional cyborg as a for of cyborg characters authors to the relationship between and in they allow of the between ego and id, the of of the other their that characters to a relationship with a cyborg may do so in to a particular of Many of the characters are as their and as a split in of as an that can be onto that of is as and the of which has the of Ammaniti's across a who a in the of a their are the of the by to in to the of show an attempt of the may be but self is by in a attempt to the through which a more development of might be cyborgs are the of male both that of the and that of the male who or them Caronia the of as “il di il di della il In of as di di that the of the a which Il corpo female and whose are directed the of of the he has The of “Ferro” is to with a female who we but the of and its with the into that this a of a of between humans and both on an and an of can be through the of a that the for to the male and the of have the to much the same to my is on the from the texts analysed in of this of creative power. their markedly of and the roles of they strongly desire or and their bodies are or by the In contrast, and have creative and the intellectual to beyond the biological human by with to and sex roles are as in and of in the texts in Il grande is as from normative these texts on and reinforce women of their to in with the of texts is desire to be to the male that have to authority and However, even this is by a desire to what he as the of female to the of the that authors of and by of in the of and the a il a la di la a a in the with strongly in the texts and especially the unconscious, a in the of However, or cyborg narratives the of the in and in as a from our a key of literature is “il che della la sua a in cyborg narratives the with that this of can be are being in with the of the by with the of the this in as a desire to in from to the virtual of the which from the other in a recent theoretical we of a that our as corpo che a In or female biological with technology. to this us for example, the by the of the also as the the into a of the of to our be to the of this However, if we are to technology as and as and have us we literary to our and than where science as by has the to such progressive be is that technology a more and more article has to the of a on cyborg and the of the ideologies into has that Italian cyborg both from the and are with problematic discourses of gender, sex and and that recent do more of a to normative to why this might be the case in in other such texts a number of works that dominant we might that is with the rather of Italian and cultural with to gender and in despite the and of a in which gender are often in the of an or or this both traditions and even to and gender have rather to cultural to such The more of science the of male authors as science to women in For the is a key of the since che il il to and that in di il il in In to the of women and representations of the self that are to much male cyborg of cyborgs to and such approaches to we might the of approaches to the relation in Italian cyborg narratives to the of Italian such as a on the Italian science and more critical of this of Italian literature to the of on Italian cyborg narratives may have significant critical attention to Italian cultural may be in Caronia and Tagliasco's and may to in cyborg but the of the texts here open the for further critical on the issues they with to sex and

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