BIOMORPHIC HORROR: THE GOTHIC BODY IN THE WORK OF J. G. BALLARDWith this article, we would like to illustrate how the body and its technological extensions are conceived in the science fiction work of the English author J. G. Ballard. To do so, we will analyze two of his main works: The Atrocity Exhibition (2014) and Crash (2007). Our reading hypothesis is that, at the dawn of neoliberalism (a period that Jameson also calls Late Capitalism), Ballard (de)composes a type of corporeal discourse destined to construct a gothic body – a body that would deviate from the idealizations of integration into contemporary technological circuits. How, through circuits that involve death, technology, pleasure and spectacularity, would Ballard be able to conceive such a body?
Key words
J. G. Ballard; Gothic; Baudrillard; Technology; Body Horror