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The automaton, known today as the robot, can be seen as a metaphor for the historical period in which it is explored. Chapters include examinations of Iconoclasm´s fear that art might surpass nature, the Cartesian mind/body divide, automata as objects of courtly desire, the uncanny Olympia, and the revolutionary Robots in post-WWI drama.

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List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Reformation Iconoclasm Descartes´ Mimetic Faculty From Aristocrats to Autocrats: The Elite as Automata Olympia´s Legacy Death of the Automaton, Birth of the Robot Draft Epilogue Bibliography Index

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KARA REILLY is a Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, UK. She is a theatre historian, theorist and dramaturg. Her work has appeared in New Theatre Quarterly, American Drama, Theatre Journal and Contemporary Theatre Review. This is her first book.

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