Representation and Analysis of the Reproductive Body in Aliens Sarah T. N. Koki College

Directed by James Cameron, Aliens is the sequel to the Alienfilm of 1979 under Ridley Scott’s direction. The story continues fifty-seven years after the events of the first film and follows officer Ellen Ripley as she returns with marines to the Alien-inhabited planet. Aliensprovides insight into a previously unanswered question about the origin of the Alien eggs by introducing an Alien Queen. Thus, the Queen in turn introduces two perspectives of the reproductive body, the Alien body and the human body, and allows the audience to draw comparisons between them. The maternal body in particular has long been regarded with both fear and fascination in response to both its maternal and abject natures (Hanson 96). In relation to conception and pregnancy, some theorists view the feminine body as a shaped territory comprised of various areas and orifices where the distinction between clean and dirty, proper and improper, and possible and impossible can be impressed and expressed (Kristeva 72). Thus, the maternal body can be conceptualized as a junction of sorts where nature can confront culture, or nurture as the unresolved debate would name it (Hanson 95). In Aliens, this junction is personified by both the Queen and Ripley – the...