Robosexuality in a science fiction story by Cristina Peri Rossi

Abstract

Cristina Peri Rossi is not usually found in any anthology or list of science fiction writers but she should be included among the best practitioners of the genre although she has experimented with it only once. The two-part short story Simulacro, her only work of science fiction appears in her anthology titled La tarde del dinosaurio, which was originally published in 1976. It is a testimony to the Hispano- Uruguayan writer’s profound posthumanist consciousness that anticipates, by almost a decade, the disruptive potential hybridity of the cyborg articulated by Donna Haraway. Patricia, Peri Rossi’s sexualized cyborg is one of the first metonymic representations of certain non-domestic aspects of the female condition. The figure of the cyborg also shows that in the utopian world of “Simulacro” resolving macro-problems does not lead to ending the emotional alienation of the human being. The present study does a close reading of the short story in an attempt to expose the self-destructive logic suggested by superimposing an external utopia on internal dystopias. Additionally, in a parallel exploration, it relates the text with the world to decipher the kind of gender relations that underlie the present day material embodiments of cybersexuality in the market