Mr. Robot and the Romantic Genius: The Figure of the Programmer in Contemporary Mass Culture

• Author / Creator

  Tarnarutckaia, Elizaveta

• Modern visual culture and, specifically, popular TV-series place great emphasis on technology and its relationship with humankind. Issues such as codependency between technology and users, the boundaries of human potential with regard to artificial intelligence, and cognitive loss from the overuse of technology have all been covered by numerous scholarly articles in recent years. However, the scholarship seems to overlook a subject central to modern technology, that is, the programmer or creator. This thesis aims to fill this gap by examining the figure of the programmer in a TV-show featuring a hacker-programmer, Mr.Robot (Sam Esmail 2015-2019).
  The major theoretical issue raised in this regard is the problem of an apposite approach. Traditional theories of technological determinism, as well as social determinism and Actor-Network theory cannot fully address the problem of an exceptional individual as presented in the TV-show. A robust analytical toolset for understanding the protagonist can be found in the concept of “genius” originating from European Romanticism.
  This thesis brings together notions associated with the idea of genius and developed by 19-Century Romantics. I intend to demonstrate that despite its proclaimed modern view on technology, this particular show portrays a rather traditional image of the programmer as a modern version of the Romantic genius.
  To support this argument, I explore the main properties of genius which were articulated by Romanticism – authorship, madness, and the notion of a Doppelgänger. I also invoke the concept of an American superhero as Mr.Robot was certainly influenced by this essential idea in American culture. However, I conclude that the programmer in Mr. Robot largely deviates from the classical American superhero. Using a neoformalist approach, I conduct an analysis of the show in order to demonstrate that Mr.Robot can be analyzed through the lenses of a Romantic idea of a solitary genius. More generally, my work aims to refocus the scholarship of technological narrative from technology to the subject and creator of technology.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • programmer
  • mr robot
  • genius
  • Romanticism
  • participatory culture
  • tv-series

• Graduation date

  Spring 2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-pp63-as92

• License

  Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.