Oedipus dup(e)licated: Artificial intelligence and the matter(e)ices of desire and the symbolic

This paper proposes to speak about a film narrative, Bicentennial Man. In the author's view, the film narrative lends itself to an analytic deconstruction that follows Oedipal and familial lines. Given that the film is ostensibly a 'children's film' and can be found only in the children's section of the video shop, there is a question of locating its symbolic place, an idea echoed by the android in the story who seeks to map out his own symbolic place.…