Subverting or Reasserting? Westworld (2016-) as an Ambiguous Critical Allegory of Gender Struggles

  1. Miguel Sebastián-Martín 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Salamanca
    info

    Universidad de Salamanca

    Salamanca, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02f40zc51

Journal:
452ºF: Revista de Teoría de la Literatura y Literatura Comparada

ISSN: 2013-3294

Year of publication: 2021

Issue Title: Ciencia ficción, género y exclusión

Issue: 24

Pages: 129-145

Type: Article

DOI: 10.1344/452F.2021.24.9 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: 452ºF: Revista de Teoría de la Literatura y Literatura Comparada

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Abstract

This article analyses the first three seasons of HBO’s Westworld (2016-2020) by considering them a critical allegory of gender relations. In so doing, the text pays special attention to the self-reflexive construction of its SF worlds, and to two of the main characters’ arcs, the female androids (or gynoids) Dolores and Maeve. More specifically, the essay consists in a dialectical examination of the series’ narrative ambiguities, so its argument is twofold. On the one hand, it is argued that Westworld is clearly and selfconsciously constructed as a critical allegory and that, as such, its SF worlds stage real social struggles (chiefly those between genders) in order to subsequently narrate their (attempted) overthrow. On the other hand, against this critical-allegorical interpretation but supplementing it, it is also argued that Westworld is not an unequivocally critical narrative and that, if we are to examine its allegorical potentials, we ought to consider too how their realisation can be obstructed and/or contradicted by certain narrative ambiguities.

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Funding information

This essay would not have been possible without the revisions of my research colleague Sara Segura Arnedo, as well as the work of my PhD supervisor Pedro Javier Pardo García, who introduced me to many of the theoretical concepts which I employ here. The work required for this article was realized under a predoctoral research contract co-funded by the European Social Fund and the Consejería de Educación of Castilla y León.

Funders

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