Identidades parentales en el cine de ciencia ficción contemporáneo

Abstract

In her celebrated Frankenstein (1818) Mary Shelley inaugurated a theme that will be key to cinematic science fiction: technologically mediated procreation. This article explores parental identities through the textual analysis of three films made by European women directors in the last years —High Life (Claire Denis, 2018), Little Joe (Jessica Hausner, 2019) and Titane (Julia Ducournau, 2021)— addressing the actualization of the technology-mediated procreation motif in contemporary science fiction. I argue that these films, shot under the premises of a genre usually filmed by men, expand the motifs of science fiction by addressing, among others, issues such as filicide, incest, interspecies procreation, or the struggles involved in the care of offspring in single-parent families. In addition, I study the presence of female characters far from the stereotype of the virtuous mother who, in contrast to the paternal figures, surpass the traditional role of caring for offspring.