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The human and computer relationship: A vehicle for character metamorphosis in fictive literature
Abstract
This dissertation analyzes the human and computer relationship in the novel. The database for this study consists of thirty-nine novels, selected for their depiction of anthropomorphized computers who engage in intimate and/or intense ties with humans. Two primary organizational schemas are used to categorize the human/computer interactions in these works. Kenneth Burke's rhetorical pentadic model is used as the principal structuring device. Within this framework, the fictional bonds are subdivided into three stages: the initial phase (transformation), the post-introductory phase (transmutation), and the transcendental phase (transfiguration). The findings of this research indicate that in popular-genre novels, personified computers are never regarded simply as tools for enhancing the efficiency of one's work. In these stories, the machines are converted from objects into intelligently conscious entities who are perceived as parents, children, friends, teachers, and/or gods. The communicative messages that are exchanged between fictive people and computers contain powerful potential for character metamorphosis. Ultimately, these works function as cautionary tales, warning that in interactions with computers, humans must be sensitive to the same issues that would arise in attachments to other people.
Subject Area
Mass media|Comparative literature|Computer science
Recommended Citation
Radin, Darlene Melville, "The human and computer relationship: A vehicle for character metamorphosis in fictive literature" (1992). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9233137.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9233137