Open AccessDarwin’s Monsters: Evolution, Science, and the Gothic in Christian Alvart’s ”Pandorum”
Author(s) -
Katarzyna Pisarska
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
lubelskie materiały neofilologiczne/lublin studies in modern languages and literature
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2450-4580
pISSN - 0137-4699
DOI - 10.17951/lsmll.2019.43.2.157-166
Subject(s) - humanity , civilization , instinct , darwin (adl) , philosophy , key (lock) , environmental ethics , art history , art , sociology , literature , history , theology , archaeology , ecology , biology , systems engineering , engineering
This article analyses Gothic tropes in the science fiction film Pandorum (2009, dir. Christian Alvart), through the lens of such concepts as evolution and science, which are presented in the film as inherently monstrous. Key to the analysis is the notion of the return of the repressed (or abjected) past which invades the future, disrupting biological, social, and moral borders of the human. This Gothic return, facilitated by advanced science and technology, turns the future into a site of humanity’s confrontation with their animal instincts, highlighting the fragility of our civilisation and proving our subjection to evolutionary processes.