Anatomy of a Robot

Reviewed by: Anatomy of a Robot: Literature, Cinema, and the Cultural Work of Artificial People by Despina Kakoudaki Gregory Hampton (bio) Anatomy of a Robot: Literature, Cinema, and the Cultural Work of Artificial People. By Despina Kakoudaki. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2014. Pp. $27.95. Anatomy of a Robot by Despina Kakoudaki is an exciting meditation on the construction and employment of artificial bodies. Kakoudaki adroitly weaves together images from ancient and contemporary literature, film, and popular culture to examine the role that the artificial person plays in the imagining of human identity in the past, present, and future. The project of the book is ambitious but because of the thoroughness of the research invested and the scope of the author’s discussion, Anatomy of a Robot yields valuable interdisciplinary insights into the relationships of technology and humanity. Kakoudaki convincingly argues that robots/artificial people “participate in ontological, political, and existential debates stemming from their unique relationship to embodiment, their complex position between animate and inanimate matter, between life and death, or between person and object” (p. 7). There are a plethora of books published before and after Anatomy of a Robot that attempt to investigate the role and possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI), the historical/ancient presence of automatons, and/or the threat of a robot uprising, but Kakoudaki’s efforts attempt to amplify the discourse with a distinctly interdisciplinary approach that is focused on the body of the robot. Race, gender, class, and sex are all addressed as identities attached to the robot body and how it is imagined. By analyzing a wide range of literature and film along with references from ontological discourse ranging from Aristotle to Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, Kakoudaki seeks to explain the origin of the artificial person and its cultural destination. The book comprises an introduction, four chapters, and a brief conclusion. Chapter 1 examines Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with the task of better understanding the significance of artificial birth in myth and folklore. In giving birth to an artificial person its creator takes on the roles and responsibilities of gods and masters. In answer to the question “Where do artificial people come from?” Kakoudaki notes how technology acts as a life-giving force but also acknowledges that the animation of the inanimate also produces a body, which complicates how the materials that constitute that body are imagined. Chapter 2 continues the discussion of the artificial body with an investigation of the mechanical robotic body and its role in reflecting the desires of its creator to be impervious and more machine than human. Chapter 3 is easily the most engaging and provocative moment in the book. “The Mechanical Slave” addresses the most pressing questions surrounding the discourse of the robot. Kakoudaki asserts that the robot and [End Page 1024] the human are distinct from one another based on the notion of purpose. Robots are designed/created with a specific purpose, where the “human life is purposeless” (p. 116). This portion of the book does not delve into the implications of free will or the AI for the robot but it does put forth an insightful discussion of race. Kakoudaki coins the term “metalface” with the assertion that “metalness can stand in for a type of blackness” (p. 117), which evokes an Africanist presence as discussed by Toni Morrison. Chapter 4, “The Existential Cyborg,” continues the question of race by considering the artificial person without metallic skin who has the ability pass as human. Kakoudaki analyzes several short stories reminiscent of the tragic mulatto genre. Anatomy of a Robot is written for an academic audience. It directly and thoroughly addresses crucial concerns of historians of technology. By examining images of the robot in literature, film, and popular culture, Kakoudaki speaks to how technology has participated in the definition and evolution of humanity. Although it is very well written, with limited employment of literary jargon, it may prove to be too dense for the unmotivated undergraduate student or sci-fi movie fanatic. And despite its distinctly interdisciplinary approach ranging from gender, science fiction, cultural, and African-American studies, Kakoudaki refuses to completely immerse the discussion of the robot into the discourse of

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