Mechanical Maids: Digital Assistants, Domestic Spaces, and the Specter(s) of Black Women's Labor- [electronic resource]
Mechanical Maids: Digital Assistants, Domestic Spaces, and the Specter(s) of Black Women's Labor- [electronic resource]
- 자료유형
- 학위논문파일 국외
- 최종처리일시
- 20240214101642
- ISBN
- 9798380147422
- DDC
- 791
- 저자명
- Owens, Golden M.
- 서명/저자
- Mechanical Maids: Digital Assistants, Domestic Spaces, and the Specter(s) of Black Womens Labor - [electronic resource]
- 발행사항
- [S.l.]: : Northwestern University., 2023
- 발행사항
- Ann Arbor : : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,, 2023
- 형태사항
- 1 online resource(298 p.)
- 주기사항
- Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-02, Section: A.
- 주기사항
- Advisor: Petty, Miriam.
- 학위논문주기
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northwestern University, 2023.
- 사용제한주기
- This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
- 초록/해제
- 요약This dissertation explores how dominant U.S. constructions of race, class, and gender are embedded into and inscribed onto artificially intelligent virtual assistants and the labors they perform. I examine virtual assistants like Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Microsoft's Cortana, interrogating their complex relationship to humanness, the tasks they are programmed to execute, and the ways they are designed to respond to and interact with users. I contend that these digital aides bear uncanny traces of the African American female slaves, servants, and houseworkers, who were once conscripted to perform the category of domestic labor that intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) now fulfill for those who use them. I employ the Antebellum-era stereotype of the Mammy, a figure who is arguably the blueprint for domestic service in the United States, as a case study, and assert that she-and a range of Black female laborers through her-subliminally haunts contemporary IVAs and the 'smart' devices they inhabit. Expanding on scholarship in Media Studies, African American Studies, Gender Studies, Science and Technology Studies, and Sound Studies, I analyze popular representations of Black female house slaves and houseworkers, robotic and/or artificially intelligent servants/helpers, labor-saving products and devices, and contemporary IVAs in twentieth and twenty-first century U.S. films, television programs, radio shows, and print and TV advertisements.My dissertation ultimately mounts an examination of race, gender, technology, class, and American labor. Through the analysis of Black female laborers and contemporary IVAs, I provide a novel, racially and culturally specific reimagining of "universal" notions like comfort, ease, power, and control, and offer a nuanced sense of the historical meaning and impact of labor-saving devices.
- 일반주제명
- Film studies.
- 일반주제명
- Gender studies.
- 일반주제명
- Black studies.
- 키워드
- Domestic labor
- 키워드
- Haunting
- 키워드
- Media
- 키워드
- Technology
- 기타저자
- Northwestern University Screen Cultures
- 기본자료저록
- Dissertations Abstracts International. 85-02A.
- 기본자료저록
- Dissertation Abstract International
- 전자적 위치 및 접속
- 로그인 후 원문을 볼 수 있습니다.