Date of Award

Summer 2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Program/Concentration

English

Committee Director

Kevin Moberly

Committee Member

Rochelle Rodrigo

Committee Member

David Roh

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E64 W65 2013

Abstract

Networked cyborgs that exist within the non-hierarchical rhizomatic network of the Internet risk losing the concept of their individuality as our identity becomes less important than the group. However, if the rhizomatic network is thought of as a hegemony that exists on the Internet, we can resist this through the residual notion of individual identity. Since cyborgs must perform in order to exist on the rhizomatic network, they can become aware of and perform their individuality through awareness of the computer medium. There are three methods for networked cyborgs to assert their individuality discussed in this thesis.

The first is to use the skin of the screen name or avatar as a metaphor for a body. Unlike skins created as templates for websites, the skins of networked cyborgs are a temporal symbiosis of memes, or data performances. These data, which consist of textual, pictorial, and video pastiches, form individual identities of networked cyborg on the Internet that are metaphorically cyborg bodies. By creating or reposting the data, constrained by the skin, the networked cyborg creates an individual identity.

The second method is to find new means of expression through online body language. The body language of the cyborg under the scrutiny of the biological panopticon (the cyborg's audience who is aware of his biological identity) consists of prescribed emotes. Emotes are cookie-cutter expressions that do not promote the notion of individuality, but mass rhizomatic communication. However, through both the repurposing of emotes and by manipulating data through the Lecoq's technique of the "neutral mask" of the anonymous avatar, cyborgs find individual means of expression online.

The third method is by subverting the discourse of the websites that networked cyborgs perform on which often suggests the cyborg must perform traditionally in ways that can restrict how the cyborg presents him or herself as an individual. However, by subverting these identities and acting outside of traditional norms, the cyborg can perform on these websites as individuals.

People who are aware of these methods and act as networked cyborgs online can resist the notion of the rhizomatic hegemony with the residual idea of individuality.

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DOI

10.25777/rbsd-d368

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