Présences féminines dans le cyberespace littéraire

Abstract

The paper examines different perspectives on feminity in some contemporary Romanian works which
can be seen as cyberpunk fictions: Cinci nori coloraţi pe cerul de răsărit by Florina Ilis, Derapaj by Ion
Manolescu, and Vincent nemuritorul by Bogdan Suceavă. Our approach identifies the role and the features of
feminine characters in a technological world usually seen as a manlike territory. The presence of futuristic
themes, the play between actual and virtual reality, the serious (or ironic) meditation on the ethics of technology
introduce new (or the same old) attributes for feminine figures. The female characters’identity is mainly
projected by the masculine into a technological (pseudo)reality, on the tv’ s or computer’ screen. Unable to
understand and to tame the feminine unknown, the male characters convert it into an electronic medium. Instead of a phalocentric perspective, when woman is seen as a powerless object, the omnipresence of the masculine (narrative) apprehension describes an alteration of the perceptive system, the male’fragility and the dependence on technological devices.