‘I Am (big) M(Other)’: Lacan’s big Other and the Role of Cynicism in Grant Sputore’s I Am Mother

BLACK, Jack (2020). ‘I Am (big) M(Other)’: Lacan’s big Other and the Role of Cynicism in Grant Sputore’s I Am Mother. Free Associations: Psychoanalysis and Culture, Media, Groups, Politics (80), 121-131.

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Abstract

How can one make sense of our current political, ecological and technological dilemmas through the lens of Grant Sputore’s I Am Mother (2019)? Well-received, the film has been commended for its account of the increasing role and impact of artificial intelligence and its relation to our ongoing ecological dilemmas and potential catastrophe. While these issues are played-out through the on-screen relationship between robotic mother and human daughter, the film can also be used to help shed light on our current ideological predicaments. With a narrative that steers towards our preference for cynical detachment, apathy and resignation, this review draws upon Lacan’s notion of the big Other, and its relation to the subject, in order to provide further discussion on the film’s ambiguous ending and the deeper sense of impotence that it accurately portrays with regards to our current political malaise.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Communication and Computing Research Centre; Sport Industry Research Centre; Humanities Research Centre; Sociology, Politics and Policy Research Group
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1234/fa.v0i80.372
Page Range:	121-131
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Elements
Depositing User:	Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited:	08 Dec 2020 10:42
Last Modified:	17 Mar 2021 19:15
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/27745

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