DESIRE, FETISH, THE CYBORG, AND SEX IN CRASH: EXISTENZ (1999), AND CRIMES OF THE FUTURE (2022): DAVID CRONENBERG IN SEARCH OF A NEW SEXUAL EPISTEMOLOGY

Abstract

This article investigates the metamorphosis of the flesh and the intricate intersection of body, technology, and desire in the cinema of David Cronenberg. Its central objective is to demonstrate how the filmmaker articulates a new sexual epistemology by hybridizing the human, the fetish, trauma, and biotechnological apparatuses in the works Crash, eXistenZ, and Crimes of the Future. To this end, the research adopts a qualitative, exploratory approach grounded in film analysis and a rigorous interdisciplinary literature review. The theoretical framework draws upon philosophical concepts such as biopower, desiring-machines, transgressive eroticism, cyborg theory, and the palliative society, mobilizing contemporary thought to unveil the violence and repressions of the "administered world." The results reveal that the visceral mutations and inorganic couplings staged by the director do not aim to shock superficially or destroy the subject; rather, they operate as profound, emancipatory strategies of resistance. By actively dissolving binary boundaries between the organic and the synthetic, Cronenberg’s narrative reconfigures stifling technology into a vital, erogenous organ. The study concludes that the filmmaker’s art establishes an unprecedented mode of existence, liberating the self from normative bourgeois constraints and forging a post-human plateau where survival and jouissance are intimately linked to the continuous transmutation of matter.