Technology and femininity in Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine
This article examines the intersection of technology and femininity in Marcel L’Herbier’s 1924 silent film L’Inhumaine, focusing on the film’s articulation of a figure of machine-woman who may be read as alternately inhuman and posthuman. The article draws on previous scholarship by Maureen Shanahan...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Edinburgh University Press
2019
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50616/ |
| _version_ | 1848798297544720384 |
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| author | Shingler, Katherine |
| author_facet | Shingler, Katherine |
| author_sort | Shingler, Katherine |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This article examines the intersection of technology and femininity in Marcel L’Herbier’s 1924 silent film L’Inhumaine, focusing on the film’s articulation of a figure of machine-woman who may be read as alternately inhuman and posthuman. The article draws on previous scholarship by Maureen Shanahan and others who have read the film through the lens of queer theory, but contends that any queer potentiality is effectively shut down at the end of the film. Offering a new reading of the mysterious machine that is used to reanimate and transform the heroine, I argue that the vision of a posthuman, technologically-mediated woman that emerges at the end of the film is far from emancipatory, and that despite its questioning of normative femininity, L’Inhumaine ultimately advances a conservative gender politics that chimes with a broad social and cultural retour à l’ordre in 1920s France. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:17:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-50616 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:17:32Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Edinburgh University Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-506162019-05-24T10:17:59Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50616/ Technology and femininity in Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine Shingler, Katherine This article examines the intersection of technology and femininity in Marcel L’Herbier’s 1924 silent film L’Inhumaine, focusing on the film’s articulation of a figure of machine-woman who may be read as alternately inhuman and posthuman. The article draws on previous scholarship by Maureen Shanahan and others who have read the film through the lens of queer theory, but contends that any queer potentiality is effectively shut down at the end of the film. Offering a new reading of the mysterious machine that is used to reanimate and transform the heroine, I argue that the vision of a posthuman, technologically-mediated woman that emerges at the end of the film is far from emancipatory, and that despite its questioning of normative femininity, L’Inhumaine ultimately advances a conservative gender politics that chimes with a broad social and cultural retour à l’ordre in 1920s France. Edinburgh University Press 2019-05 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50616/1/L%27Inhumaine%20article%20revised.pdf Shingler, Katherine (2019) Technology and femininity in Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine. Modernist Cultures, 14 (2). ISSN 1753-8629 machine-woman posthuman queer theory silent film technology of orgasm https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/mod.2019.0252 doi:10.3366/mod.2019.0252 doi:10.3366/mod.2019.0252 |
| spellingShingle | machine-woman posthuman queer theory silent film technology of orgasm Shingler, Katherine Technology and femininity in Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine |
| title | Technology and femininity in Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine |
| title_full | Technology and femininity in Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine |
| title_fullStr | Technology and femininity in Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine |
| title_full_unstemmed | Technology and femininity in Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine |
| title_short | Technology and femininity in Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine |
| title_sort | technology and femininity in marcel l'herbier's l'inhumaine |
| topic | machine-woman posthuman queer theory silent film technology of orgasm |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50616/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50616/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50616/ |