Ghost in the Shell 2, technicity and the subject

Article


Hourigan, Daniel. 2013. "Ghost in the Shell 2, technicity and the subject." Film-Philosophy. 17 (1), pp. 51-67.
Article Title

Ghost in the Shell 2, technicity and the subject

ERA Journal ID35278
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorHourigan, Daniel
Journal TitleFilm-Philosophy
Journal Citation17 (1), pp. 51-67
Number of Pages17
Year2013
Place of PublicationLiverpool, United Kingdom
ISSN1466-4615
Web Address (URL)http://www.film-philosophy.com/index.php/f-p/article/view/224
Abstract

This discussion examines how Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence questions what remains of being human and the assemblage of humanity when the human and the machine collide and elide their limit of differentiation. It will be shown how the film's predilection for technology in its narrative content and technological rationalism in its wider conceptual embedding reconstructs humanity but rejects the metaphysical valuation of humanity through notions of dignity, taboo, respect, affect, and so forth. By connecting this twin problematic of ontological difference and metaphysical poverty to the ontological philosophy of Martin Heidegger and psychoanalytic philosophy of Slavoj Zizek, this paper aims to unearth and lay bare the paradoxes inherent in the view of technology and society deployed by Innocence and how the film is able to, in the presence of these explicitly ontological paradoxes, put the question of what constitutes a human Subject into crisis by coding it as a symptom.

KeywordsOshii; Ghost in the Shell 2; Wachowski; The Matrix Reloaded; Heidegger; Zizek; Lacan; Parmenides; psychoanalysis; ontology; metaphysics
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020440107. Social and cultural anthropology
360501. Cinema studies
500309. Metaphysics
Byline AffiliationsGriffith University
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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