Body Doubles and Trauma: The Figure of the Doppelgänger in the Science Fiction Genre
Natasza Korczarowska
natasza.korczarowska@uni.lodz.plUniversity of Lodz (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3130-128X
Abstract
The article discusses the function of the figure of the double in the context of trauma in the science fiction genre, based on the example of the film Solaris (2002) by Steven Soderbergh and the series Katla (2021) by Baltasar Kormákur. Their creators strongly oppose the literary Gothic tradition as established by Freud’s canonical essay “The Uncanny” and evoked by René Girard in the concept of the “monstrous double.” Existential issues and reflection on the corporeal aspect of experiencing otherness place the discussed films in the paradigm of ecocriticism. The author emphasizes that, unlike many contemporary science-fiction works, they do not focus on the (doubled) body – technology relationship, but on the (doubled) body – nature relationship. Here, nature interacts directly with humans, responding – through the materialized bodies of doppelgängers – to their subconscious desires related to the trauma they have experienced. Concepts from the field of Freudian psychoanalysis inherent in trauma theory allow us to bring out the constructive aspect of confrontation with a doubled embodied Other.
Keywords:
trauma, doppelganger, Sigmund Freud, ecocriticism, Steven Soderbergh, Baltasar KormákurReferences
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Authors
Natasza Korczarowskanatasza.korczarowska@uni.lodz.pl
University of Lodz Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3130-128X
Professor at the Department of Film and Audiovisual Media, Institute of Contemporary Culture, University of Lodz. She specializes in the history of Polish film, contemporary European cinema, and the problems of historiophoty. She published the books Ojczyzny prywatne [Private Homelands] (2007) and Inne spojrzenie [Another Way] (2013) – the latter devoted to the images of history in the Polish feature film after 1965. Since 2008 she has cooperated with the Polish Film Institute and the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute on the educational project Academy of Polish Film.
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