RT Journal Article
T1 Wasted lives and resistance in contemporary speculative TV: Orphan Black (2013–2017)
A1 Carrasco Carrasco, Rocío
K1 Orphan Black
K1 Stigma
K1 Waste
K1 Female Clone
K1 Posthuman agent
K1 Speculative TV
AB This article discusses the representation of biopolitical oppression of women’s bodies and its ethical consequences in the SF TV series Orphan Black (2013–2017). The series focuses on a group of self-aware clones who discover that they are victims of biological experimentation and corporate profit and start a collective fight against their oppressors. The show explores how biosciences and big corporations oppress women’s bodies and regard them as waste. However, as it will be argued, the series also proposes spaces of resistance and fight against such power structures, whereby characters succeed in conquering spaces of domination in their quest for freedom. Taking as starting points of analysis Bauman’s concept of “wasted lives” (2004) and Tyler’s proposal of stigma as an instrument of state coercion (2020), this article seeks to demonstrate through the lens of feminist critical posthumanism (Braidotti, Ferrando, Vint) how Orphan Black serves as a science fiction narrative in which women’s bodies are systematically disciplined and exploited, and yet they eventually manage to become (posthuman) active agents of change and transformation.
PB Taylor and Francis Group
SN 1382-5577
SN 1744-4233 (electrónico)
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/28652
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/28652
LA eng
NO Carrasco-Carrasco, R. (2025). Wasted lives and resistance in contemporary speculative TV: Orphan Black (2013–2017). European Journal of English Studies, 29(2), 302–319. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825577.2025.2510628
NO The author wishes to acknowledge the funding provided by the research project “Trans-formations: Queer Practices of Use and Embodiment in Post 9/11 Narratives in English” (PID2023-146450NB-I00), Spanish Ministry for Universities, European Union and National Research Agency for the publication of this article.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 14 jul 2026