Mito, media e Poor Things! L'elaborazione sociale della morte al tempo dell'Intelligenza Artificiale

Myth, Media, and Poor Things! The social construction of death in the time of Artificial Intelligence The present work discusses the way the media - and cinema in particular – renovate the myth and thus respond to the cognitive and heuristic needs of humans, working as a mythological machine: unlike some readings of the myth-media relationship which underline the weakening of its cognitive force caused by technologization and serialization of materials, this essay highlights the power of the media in re-opening and regenerating the mythical matter, especially concerning complex themes such as that of the social processing of death. To this end, this work analyzes the film Poor Things! by Yorgos Lanthimos (2023) searching out the mythical material within it and its renewal considering 1. the transformations that have affected the media in the meantime, 2. the spectator's gaze and 3. the social context deeply pervaded by narratives on the technological transformations triggered by AI.