Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Dystopian Science Fiction'
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Bouet, Elsa Dominique. "Hitting the wall : dystopian metaphors of ideology in science fiction." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/9476.
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This thesis explores the depictions of the relationship between utopia and ideology by looking at metaphors of the wall in of utopian and dystopian science fiction, such as Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Strugatsky brothers' Roadside Picnic. The wall is an image symbolising the ambiguity between ideology and utopia: the wall could be perceived to be the barrier protecting utopia while it is in fact the symbol for ideological restrictions and containment which are generating dystopia. The thesis looks at how these novels engage with the theme of the wall: it is used as an image altering history, constricting space and as a linguistic barrier. The characters' presence in and experience of the worlds is restricted by the ideological walls, and an alternate reality is created. The thesis looks at how the novels create such alternate, ideological realities and how the wall becomes the entity altering time, history, space and language. This alternate reality is used as an image of stability, but this takes on negative connotations: it becomes a constrictive force, embodying Fredric Jameson's idea that science fiction creates images of “world reduction”, caging the characters' desires, disabling the utopian impulse. The thesis therefore instigates the possibility of utopia: the wall negates all possibility of change and denies the hopes of the utopian impulse; however the characters' desire to regain humanity by destroying the ideological walls offers hope and opens up utopia, thus concluding that utopia is change and progress.
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MacNeill, Gordon. "Moulding Minds : Media, Mass Manipulation and Subjectivity in Dystopian Science Fiction." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.507728.
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NEWMAN, CHINA RAE. "GENDER PERFORMANCE IN DYSTOPIAN LITERATURE THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE FICTION." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/613347.
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This work analyzes the use and portrayal of gender in Jack London’s The Iron Heel (1908), George Orwell’s 1984 (1949), Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), and Stephanie Collins’ The Hunger Games (2008), four dystopian works written over a period of 100 years. It questions the reasoning behind the use of gender within each of the texts and looks at the changes in the use and presentation of gendered characters in each of the novels, considering the purpose of each text and the possible reasoning behind gendered portrayals of the characters in each story. Though a chronological analysis of these texts reveals a change from the portrayal of femininity as a singular good to a mindless weakness to a necessary balancing force, feminine characters remain subordinate to and weaker than masculine characters, even as a female protagonist takes the stage in the final novel. Finally, the work questions whether the conventions of the dystopian genre preclude the existence of a feminine dystopian hero or if the reason she has not yet been written is based on a cultural bias towards strong masculinity in main characters of any gender rather than the norms of the dystopian genre.
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McGinney, William Lawrence. "The Sounds of the Dystopian Future: Music for Science Fiction Films of the New Hollywood Era, 1966-1976." Thesis, connect to online resource, 2009. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-9839.
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Zajac, Ronald J. (Ronald John). "The Dystopian city in British and US science fiction, 1960-1975 : urban chronotopes as models of historical closure." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61046.
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In much dystopian SF, the city models a society which represses the protagonist's sense of historical time, replacing it with a sense of "private" time affecting isolated individuals. This phenomenon appears in dystopian SF novels of 1960-75--including Thomas M. Disch's 334, John Brunner's The Jagged Orbit, Philip K. Dick's Martian Time-Slip, J. G. Ballard's High-Rise, and Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren--as well as some precursors--including Wells, Zamyatin's We, Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. In these novels the cities also reveal in their chronotopic arrangement the degree to which revolutionary forces can oppose the dystopian order. While the earlier dystopias see revolution crushed by despotic state power, those of 1960-75 see it thwarted by the dehumanizing effects of capitalism. The period from 1960-75 ends in resignation to an existence in which individual action can no longer effect political change, at best tempered by irony (Disch, Delany).
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Byrnes, Claire D. "Blood on her hands: A practice-led approach to exploring violent heroines in dystopian fiction." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2018. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/121424/2/Claire_Byrnes_Thesis.pdf.
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This creative practice-led research project investigates the creation of violent female protagonists in dystopian fiction in order to discover what these type of characters reveal about society's ideas of gender. The outcome of the project is research product or artefact, a work of fiction titled 'Swan Song'. The work is deliberately poetic in presentation to encourage readers to consider the complexity of female gender construction. The project accomplishes this by incorporating aspects of evocative practice research, action research, and fiction in the research methods.
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Lueckel, Wolfgang. "Atomic Apocalypse - 'Nuclear Fiction' in German Literature and Culture." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1281459381.
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Charléz, Sara. ""A Mere Dream Dreamed in a Bad Time" : A Marxist Reading of Utopian and Dystopian Elements in Ursula K. Le Guin's Always Coming Home." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för språkstudier, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-156031.
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In Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel Always Coming Home, utopian and dystopian elements interact according to patterns inspired by anarchism and Taoism to criticise material excesses and oppressive social structures under capitalism. Via discussions of gender, state power, and forms of social (re)production, this Marxist reading proposes that the novel’s separation of utopia from dystopia hinges on the absence or presence of a state. The reading also suggests that the novel’s utopia is by its own admission a “mere dream” with limited relevance to anti-capitalist politics, and employs the novel’s own term “handmind” to show that the aesthetic and philosophical dimensions of its anti-capitalist sentiments encourage a reconsideration of utopia, to be viewed not as a fixed future product – a good-place – but as a constant process of becoming – a no-place.
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Duval, Laura K. "The Marked." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2019. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2690.
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This paper will detail the making of The Marked, exploring from concept to completion, with special focus on creating a dystopian, science fiction, film with an element of fantasy. I will begin by examining my inspirations. Next, I will explore preproduction, examining screenwriting, casting, location scouting, production, and preparation. Part three will look at production, focusing on directing, production design, cinematography, and on-set operations. Part four will examine post production, including, editing, color correction, sound design, and music. Each element of production will be evaluated to determine if they helped successfully create a believable, dystopian, fantasy story for the viewer. I will also be examining whether the themes I originally sought to explore come across in the film.
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Uhlenbruch, Frauke. "The Nowhere Bible : the Biblical passage Numbers 13 as a case study of Utopian and Dystopian readings by diachronic audiences." Thesis, University of Derby, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10545/315827.
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Applying utopian theory to the Bible reveals a number of issues surrounding the biblical text within academic disciplines such as biblical studies, which study the Bible as an ancient cultural artefact, and among religious readers of the Bible. The biblical passage Numbers 13 was chosen as a case study of a utopian reading of the image of the Promised Land to demonstrate the Bible’s multifaceted potential by externalising the presupposition brought to the text. The underlying method is derived from an ideal type procedure, appropriated from Weber. Instead of comparing phenomena to each other, one compares a phenomenon to a constructed ideal type. This method enables one to compare phenomena independently of exclusive definitions and direct linear influences. It has been suggested by biblical scholars that utopian readings of the Bible can yield insights into socio-political circumstances in the society which produced biblical texts. Using observations by Holquist about utopias’ relationships to reality it is asked if applying the concept of utopia to a biblical passage allows drawing conclusions about the originating society of the Hebrew Bible. The answer is negative. Theory about literary utopias is applied to the case study passage. Numbers 13 is similar to literary utopias in juxtaposing a significantly improved society with a home society, the motif of travellers in an unfamiliar environment, and the feature of a map which is graphically not representable. Noth’s reading of the biblical passage’s toponyms reveals that its map is a utopian map. Numbers 13 is best understood as a literary utopia describing an unrealistic environment and using common utopian techniques and motifs. Despite describing an unrealistic environment, the passage was understood as directly relevant to reality by readers throughout time, for example by Bradford. Following two Puritan readings, it is observed that biblical utopian texts have the potential of being applied in reality by those who see them as a call to action. If a literary utopia is attempted to be brought into reality, it becomes apparent that it marginalises those who are not utopian protagonists; in the case study passage, the non-Israelite tribes, in Bradford’s reading, the Native Nations in New England. The interplay of utopia and dystopia is explored and it is concluded that a definitive trait of literary utopias is their potential to turn into an experienced dystopia if enforced literally. This argument is supported by demonstrating that the utopian traits of the case study passage contain dystopian downsides if read from a different perspective. A contemporary utopian reading of the case study passage is proposed. Today utopian speculation most often appears in works of science fiction (SF). Motifs appearing in the case study passage are read as tropes familiar to a contemporary Bible reader from SF. Following D. Suvin’s SF theory, it is concluded that the Bible in the contemporary world can be understood as a piece of SF. It contains the juxtaposition of an estranged world with a reader’s experienced world as well as a potential utopian and dystopian message.
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Akkan, Goksu. "Audiovisual representations of Artificial Intelligence in Dystopian Tech Societies: Scaremongering or Reality? The Cases of Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011), Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2017) and Her (Spike Jonze, 2014)." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Ramon Llull, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/671832.
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La intel·ligència artificial ha estat un concepte que captiva la humanitat des de fa mil·lennis. Des de l'antiguitat, els humans estan obsessionats amb la idea de crear un ésser humà artificial perfecte amb diferents objectius, com ara la companyia o l'ajuda domèstica, i han escrit sobre ells en textos antics de diverses cultures. Això va evolucionar cap a la literatura de protofantasia o protociència-ficció a l’alta edat mitjana. Tanmateix, no va ser fins al segle XIX que la influent obra de Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818), va reunir diferents aspectes de la creació artificial de vida humana artificial en el debat d’una comprensió psicològica social més àmplia. Amb l'arribada dels mitjans audiovisuals al segle XX, aquestes representacions dels humanoides creats artificialment o d'altres creacions amb cert grau de consciència han poblat tant la gran pantalla com la televisió. Aquesta tesi se centra en les connexions socials d'aquestes representacions de la Intel·ligència Artificial, a partir de la sèrie de televisió Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011), així com en les pel·lícules Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) i Her (Spike Jonze, 2014), per tal d’analitzar la relació entre la Intel·ligència Artificial i els humans des de perspectives i paradigmes diversos. L’anàlisi audiovisual de les obres seleccionades és seguida d’una exploració de com s’estan produint aquests recents avenços tecnològics en la nostra societat actual, per relacionar-los amb les advertències que proposen les obres seleccionades i que ofereixen una lectura per al futur que requereix la implementació de normatives estrictes sobre la Intel·ligència Artificial per tal d’alleujar les angoixes humanes respecte a la tecnologia. Paraules clau: Intel·ligència artificial, tecnologia, ciència ficció, distopia, estudis cinematogràfics, societat.La inteligencia artificial es un concepto que fascina a la humanidad durante milenios. Desde la antigüedad, los humanos han estado obsesionados con la idea de crear un humano artificial perfecto para diferentes fines, como la compañía o la ayuda doméstica, y han escrito sobre ello en textos fundacionales de diversas culturas. Esto se convirtió progresivamente en literatura de protofantasía o proto-ciencia ficción en la Alta Edad Media. Sin embargo, no fue hasta el siglo XIX cuando la influyente obra Frankenstein (1818) de Mary Shelley reunió diferentes aspectos de la creación de un ser humano artificial, discutidos dentro de una comprensión psicológica y social más amplia. Con la llegada de los medios audiovisuales en el siglo XX, estas representaciones de humanoides creados artificialmente o de otras creaciones con cierto grado de conciencia han poblado tanto la gran pantalla como la televisión. Esta tesis se centra en las conexiones sociales de dichas representaciones de la Inteligencia Artificial, centrándose en la serie de televisión Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011), así como en las películas Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) y Her (Spike Jonze, 2014), analizando las relaciones entre la Inteligencia Artificial y los humanos desde una variedad de perspectivas y paradigmas diferentes. El análisis audiovisual de las obras seleccionadas va seguido de una exploración sobre cómo estos avances tecnológicos recientes se están produciendo en nuestra sociedad actual, vinculándolos con las advertencias que formulan las obras seleccionadas y ofreciendo una lectura de futuro que requiere la implementación de una estricta normativa en torno a la Inteligencia Artificial para aliviar las ansiedades humanas sobre la tecnología. Palabras clave: inteligencia artificial, tecnología, sociedad, ciencia ficción, distopía, estudios cinematográficos.
Artificial Intelligence has been a concept that has infatuated humankind for millennia. Since antiquity, humans have been obsessed with the idea of creating a perfect artificial human for different aims such as companionship or domestic help, and ancient cultures have devoted foundational texts to the artificial human. This literary occupation gradually evolved into proto-fantasy or proto-Science Fiction literature in the early middle ages. However, it wasn’t until the 19th century that Mary Shelley’s influential work Frankenstein (1818) brought together different aspects of creating an artificial human discussed within a broader social and psychological understanding. With the advent of audiovisual media in the 20th century, such representations of artificially created humanoids or other creations with some degree of consciousness have populated both the silver screen and television. This thesis focuses on the societal connections between such representations of Artificial Intelligence, focusing on the TV show Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011) as well as the films Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) and Her (Spike Jonze, 2014) by analyzing the Artificial Intelligence - human relationships from a variety of different perspectives and paradigms. The audiovisual analyses of the selected works are then followed by an examination of how such recent technological developments are taking place in our current society. These texts under examination exhort us to beware the potential dangers of AI technology, which require implementation of strict regulations around the Artificial Intelligence framework in order to alleviate human anxieties about technology. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, technology, technology and society, Science Fiction, dystopia, film studies, society.
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Pettersson, Björn. "Brist på själslig insikt? : Utomjordingar och deras forskning kring människan i Dark City." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Estetisk-filosofiska fakulteten, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-13020.
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The paper examines how human inner properties and the interpretation of the external worldare explained and presented in Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998). Aspects as the relationship between the body and soul/consciousness, body snatching, memory transferences and dystopian cities are analyzed. The field of study is compared to a general science-fiction film perspective regarding the aspects. Dark City contains an alien race with a common mind, but who lacks soul and individuality. They represent what humanity can become if the scientific development goes too far. They conduct research about the human soul to save their own race. They fail to reach the soul trough scientific experiments, which include memory transferences. The only remaining explanation is that the soul has an immaterial origin. This is against the common materialistic view in the current science-fiction genre; the inner aspects are to a large extent explained from a cognitive/neural perspective. This means that Dark City implicit criticize movies and theories which states that we may be able to understand and create copies of the human consciousness.
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Colas, de La Noue Hélène. "Dystopie et science-fiction au Québec : 1963-1973 : étude des représentations des sciences et des techniques." Thèse, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 1989. http://depot-e.uqtr.ca/5596/1/000580215.pdf.
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Divine, Susan Marie. "Utopias of Thought, Dystopias of Space: Science Fiction in Contemporary Peninsular Narrative." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195666.
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This study serves as an introduction to three recent narratives in Spanish Science Fiction. While this literary genre has long been read in Spain in translation, it is only recently that Sci-Fi has been successful as a popular literature produced by native authors. Álex de la Iglesia, Gabriela Bustelo and Rafael Reig have worked in realist and genre fiction through their careers but chose to use Science Fiction to speak of the rapidly changing space of Madrid. Their criticism is centered on the changes to the physical, social, economic and political landscape of Madrid post-1992. My analysis is based on the works of the geographer David Harvey, among others, which helps to underline the importance of the urbanization of capital and consciousness that the three narratives disentangle. While being three very different texts - one film and two novels -, they all manipulate concerns of time and space to come to a similar conclusion. Their narratives serve as a warning about how the good intentions of humanist theories like feminism or scientific advancement can easily turn into a nightmare by instead serving the needs of capitalism rather than those of social justice.
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Peters, Rebecca Anne. "When Code replaces scripture: Black Mirror, Technology and the Specter of Cristianity." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/673473.
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This thesis analyzes 12 episodes from the dystopian science fiction anthology series, Black Mirror (2011-present). Episodes selected are those that, as argued in this text, depict the role of technology as replacing that of traditional religion, namely Christianity. The importance of looking at these episodes together becomes clear when considering contemporary debates around technology and our collective technological aims. The analysis of individual episodes forms a foundation for the reading of Black Mirror and its technology within the framework of Christian concepts. Episodes are compared to the Christian concepts they mirror, historical events and theological debates within Christianity, and contemporary trends and events relating to technology. Throughout the history of western civilization, Christian belief has played an important role in shaping cultural ideologies particularly conceptions of death, suffering, and humanity’s place in the world; these ideas continue to penetrate cultural narratives today, despite declining self-recognition in the west as religious.Aquesta tesi analitza el paper de la tecnologia en substitució del de la religió cristiana a través de 12 episodis de la sèrie de ciència-ficció Black Mirror (2011-present). La importància d'analitzar aquests episodis en conjunt es fa evident quan es consideren debats contemporanis entorn de la tecnologia i els nostres objectius tecnològics col·lectius. Es comparen els episodis amb conceptes cristians que reflecteixen, els esdeveniments històrics i els debats teològics del cristianisme i les tendències i esdeveniments contemporanis relacionats amb la tecnologia. Històricament, el cristianisme ha configurat la ideologia cultural d'occident, com les concepcions de la mort, el sofriment i el lloc de la humanitat al món; aquestes idees continuen penetrant en les narratives culturals actuals, tot i disminuir l'autoreconeixement d'Occident com a religiós.
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Tobin, Stephen Christopher. "Visual Dystopias from Mexico’s Speculative Fiction: 1993-2008." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437528785.
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Drage, Eleanor Guistina Prudence <1991>. "Utopia/Dystopia, Race, Gender, and New Forms of Humanism in Women's Science Fiction." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2019. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/8828/1/Eleanor%20Drage%20-%20Thesis%20-Cotutela%20.pdf.
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This thesis aims to uncover new forms of humanism grounded in a critique of systems that produce and reify race and gender by staging a conversation between six contemporary works of science fiction (SF) written by women from Italy, France, Spain, and the UK, and five acclaimed theorists in the fields of gender, queer, postcolonial, humanist, and cultural studies: Judith Butler, Rosi Braidotti, Gayatri Spivak, Paul Gilroy, and Jack Halberstam. As outlined in the second chapter, I focus, in particular, on Butler’s conception of subjects who ‘become’ through affective encounters, Braidotti’s critical posthumanism, Spivak and Gilroy’s respective notions of ‘planetarity,’ and Halberstam’s theory of a ‘queer art of failure.’ In doing so, this thesis asserts the complementarity of academic and science fictional enquiries into what I view as examples of new forms of humanism that arise from historicised interrogations of systems of race and gender. The first chapter introduces the way in which SF appeals to women writers who embrace the genre’s political energy and its anti-racist, anti-sexist, and humanistic potential by tracing a genealogy of European women’s SF from the seventeenth century to the present day. The second half of the thesis reads examples of politically charged SF from my corpus alongside the critical theory outlined in the second chapter, in order to demonstrate how SF engages with new forms of humanism through a critique and reformulation of issues of race and gender. I follow this analysis with an exploration of the way in which SF’s unique spatial attributes can probe the borders of the planetary humanisms or ‘planetarity’ proposed by Gilroy and Spivak. I finally assess, by way of a conclusion, the extent to which SF can reassemble and amplify the achievements of these new forms of anti-racist and anti-sexist humanism.
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Jackson, Sarah Anne. "Utopia and dystopia in futuristic nonfiction television." Thesis, Montana State University, 2010. http://etd.lib.montana.edu/etd/2010/jackson/JacksonS0510.pdf.
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Fiction often represents the future in either a utopian or dystopian light. Utopian fiction presents worlds where life is perfection. Dystopian fiction's conflict comes directly from the characters' interactions with the problems in their world. When nonfiction television enters into speculation by making programs about the future, they also enter into these two categories of fiction. Some programs show a world returning to a perfect Eden, but they begin with the dystopian ending of the human race on earth. Other shows promise technological utopias, but avoid obvious problems with their technologically dependent tomorrows. These shows all take tropes from dystopian science fiction, but use their status as science documentaries to deny that any of the critiques of fiction belong in their programs.
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Warwick, Harry. "The aesthetics of enclosure : dystopia and dispossession in the 1980s Hollywood science-fiction film." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2018. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/427159/.
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As an increasing body of historical and economic scholarship attests, the processes Marx placed under the heading of 'primitive accumulation', and which he saw as the precondition of capitalism, continue today in a particularly intense form. If Marx's main example in Capital, Volume 1 (1867) was the enclosure of English land from the late fifteenth century, now scholars can point to the expansion of intellectual property rights, the privatisation of water and other public services, the sale of the US national forests, the imposition of 'structural adjustment programmes', and the war in Afghanistan as so many 'new enclosures'-efforts to bring ever greater zones of human activity within the ambit of capitalist production. Yet what remains unexamined in this still-growing literature is how the new enclosures have been represented in the sphere of culture. Have cultural forms been able to register these new expropriations? If so, how have they depicted a process that is pervasive, but whose forms of appearance are so diverse? This thesis endeavours to answer such questions through the analysis of five major Hollywood science-fiction films of the 1980s: Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982), David Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983), and Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990). It argues that, taken together, these films develop an 'aesthetic of enclosure': a series of representational strategies that make enclosure visible. Typically understood by scholars as a critical and historicising genre, the science-fiction film is well positioned to detect, examine, and challenge capitalism's renewed efforts to privatise and dispossess.
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Bowser, Alexander Jon. "Bad pixels challenges of microbudget digital cinema." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2011. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4852.
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Bad Pixels is a feature-length, microbudget, digital motion picture, produced, written, and directed by Alexander Jon Bowser as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Digital Media from the University of Central Florida. The materials contained herein serve as a record of the microbudget filmmaking experience. This thesis documents the challenges confronted by a first-time feature filmmaker; an evaluation of both the theory and application of a dynamic microbudget approach to digital content creation. From script development to digital distribution, the thesis aims to reflect on technical and procedural decisions made and assess their impact on the overall experience and final product.ID: 029810312; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Includes screenplay.; Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.
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Arts and Humanities
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Thibodeau, Amanda. "Gender, Utopia, and Temporality in Feminist Science Fiction: (Re)Reading Classic Texts of the Past, in the Present, and for the Future." Scholarly Repository, 2011. http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/oa_dissertations/586.
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This dissertation explores the ways that women authors of science fiction have altered conventions of utopia and science fiction in order to revise conceptions of gender, sexuality, the body, and the environment. I examine several twentieth-century feminist critical dystopias that continue to betray genre and form, and to shape the science fiction being written at this moment. Each of the works demonstrates particular elements that facilitate its revisionary power: challenging and deconstructing sex/gender systems, blending utopian and dystopian conventions, and engaging in temporal play. By doing so they accomplish a range of tasks: disrupting generic and historical conventions, blending genres, redefining utopia, and making connections with present realities in order to make a case for social change, particularly for female and queer subjects. Though many of the texts are considered canonical by sf standards, and have been widely praised and critiqued in academic publications, each one continues its project of resistance in the light of the genre and of ever-evolving theories of gender, sexuality, race, and identity. As a scholar of gender and queer theory, I find within sf an extraordinary realm of potential for those willing to challenge norms and imagine new possibilities. In their rejection of system and form, the authors render impure the genre of science fiction, providing a new space in which utopian ideals can become literary and cultural resistance.
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Nilsson, Ylva. "Den rationella kroppen : Makt och kontroll över kropp i dystopi, utopi och science fiction." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Avdelningen för humaniora, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-21320.
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Vad som ständigt återkommer i det här arbetet, genom de böcker som diskuterats: en kontrollerad, rationellt strukturerad, kroppp. En kropp gjord för att användas, men på vilket sätt? Enligt vilka regler? Och för vems skull? Vetenskapens avskalande av kulturella och religiösa kroppsföreställningar har lett till att de diffusa, utbytbara normerna blivit utbytta mot bestämda och odiskutabla fakta.Godkännandedatum 2013-01-16
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Geef, Dennis [Verfasser]. "Late Capitalism and Its Fictitious Future(s) : The Postmodern, Science Fiction, and the Contemporary Dystopia / Dennis Geef." Bonn : Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Bonn, 2015. http://d-nb.info/1077265468/34.
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Jeannin, Hélène. "Les représentations fictionnelles de la surveillance. Dystopies contemporaines de la redite a l'innovation." Thesis, Paris 3, 2010. http://www.theses.fr/2010PA030152.
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Une quinzaine d'oeuvres provenant de champs artistiques et culturels différents [littérature et cinéma] réunies par un dénominateur commun, seront soumises à notre questionnement : existe-t-il un idéal type de société sous surveillance ? A travers l'usage de la taxinomie et une approche comparatiste, nous dresserons une typologie des images comme éléments clés des représentations. Au système de multiplication de référents symboliques interne à chaque oeuvre s'ajoute celui d'un réseau de correspondances visuelles exogène basé sur un référentiel d'images quasi immuable. Les oeuvres se révèlent riches en sens et en symboles. Les nombreuses images convoquées par l'écrivain par le biais de métaphores ou autres tropes, rejoignent celles du réalisateur. Une étude transversale aboutit à un répertoire de codifications visuelles portant sur des univers imaginaires. On constate ainsi par ce biais un processus incessant de recyclage d'idées et d'histoires, qui se muent en standard et permettent de capturer une audience de plus en plus internationale, tout en forgeant un imaginaire social qui s'instaure par contagion. Les propos servis sont sérieux. L'ensemble dissémine une vision du monde qui obéit le plus souvent au principe de rationalisation, censé de s ' inscrire dans un ordre du contrôle et de la manipulation. Jaillissent des mondes nouveaux, comme porteurs de révélations quasi universelles. Nos auteurs [de science-fiction] s'inscrivent dans une longue tradition [l'utopie]. Mais la pression du genre, des motifs obligés et des conventions, n'entame pas leur capacité au renouveau, et la redite n'est pas un frein à l'innovationAbout fifteen works from different artistic and cultural backgrounds [literature and cinema], and sharing a common denominator, will be submitted to our questioning: is there an ideal type of society under surveillance? Through the use of taxonomy and a comparatist approach, we will draw up a typology of images as key elements of our representations. The system of multiplying symbolic referents inherent in each work completes a network of visual exogenous correspondence based on a relatively steady image referential. Works prove to be rich, both in meaning and symbol. The many images used by the writer, by means of metaphors or other tropes, meet that of a fiction director. A transversal study leads to a directory of visual codifications bearing upon imaginary worlds. This is how we observe an incessant process of recycling ideas and stories, that evolve into standards, thus enabling to capture the eye of an ever more international public, while forging a social imaginary world, settling in by way of contagion. The topics dealt with are serious. As a whole, they disseminate a vision of the world that obeys, most of the time, a rationalization principle that is supposed to be in line with control and manipulation. New worlds arise, bringing out universal eye-openers. Our [science-fiction] authors fall in with a long tradition [utopia]. But the genre, via obligated topics and conventions, do not for as much pressure one to diminish their capacity for renewal, and repetition does not curb their innovation
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Jackson, Vivian Elaine. "New technology in education as viewed through the utopic and dystopic worlds of science fiction." Click here to access dissertation, 2007. http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/archive/spring2007/vivian_e_jackson/jackson_vivian_e_200701_edd.pdf.
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Thesis (Ed. D.)--Georgia Southern University, 2007."A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education." In Curriculum Studies, under the direction of John A. Weaver. ETD. Electronic version approved: May 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 386-402) and appendices.
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Hedberg, Sebastian. "Concep Art : En praktisk studie om arbetsprocessen bakom skapandet av konstformen med dystopi/postapokalyptisk science fiction som tema." Thesis, University of Skövde, School of Humanities and Informatics, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-3437.
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Swirski, Peter. "Dystopia or dischtopia : an analysis of the SF paradigms in Thomas M. Disch." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61241.
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On the basis of an ontological analogy between the worlds of myth and dystopia, the present thesis argues the latter's inherently "metaphysical" character. As such, dystopia is regarded as categorically different from Science Fiction which, however grim in its surface presentation, always remains paradigmatically "non-metaphysical," i.e., neutral. This generic distinction is then applied to the analysis of the three most important SF works of Thomas M. Disch, one of the most interesting and accomplished contemporary SF writers. The generic, as well as socio-aesthetic discussion of Camp Concentration, 334, and On Wings of Song, traces Disch's development of a characteristically "Dischtopian" paradigm of social SF.
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Nilsson, Kerstin. "Att förhindra en dystopisk framtid : Samhällskritik och science fiction i De kommer att drunkna i sina mödrars tårar av Johannes Anyuru." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Institutionen för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-38126.
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Sundkvist, Patrick. "Dreams of Democracy within Extreme Dystopias : A Study of the Imperium of Man." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Institutionen för språk, litteratur och interkultur (from 2013), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-84245.
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The purpose of this essay is to analyse several of the extreme dystopian elements found in the Warhammer: 40000 megatext and reveal how these elements display critique towards authoritarian policies and philosophy. I opted for a close reading of several texts and analysed several characters’ relationship to the galactic empire known as the Imperium of Man and found themes of suppression of thought, self-existential crises and wishes for freedom. Through my analysis of the megatext of Warhammer: 40000, I argue that it is the governance of the Imperium of Man that creates these humanitarian issues, and, while not an explicit reference, has been influenced by our own human history.Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera ett flertal dystopiska element som existerar i det fiktiva universumet Warhammer: 40000 och påvisa hur dessa element avslöjar kritik riktad mot auktoritär politik och filosofi. Jag valde en fördjupad läsning av ett antal texter och analyserade karaktärernas relation till det galaktiska imperiet Imperium of Man och fann områden vars fokus var förtryck mot yttrandefrihet, existensiella kriser och drömmar om frihet. I min analys av Warhammer: 40000 argumenterar jag att styrelseskicket som etablerats i Imperium of Man skapar dessa humanitära kriser, vilket till viss del blivit inspirerat av mänsklighetens egen historia.
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Karlsson, Torbjörn, and Gustav Ekholm. "Genusframställningen i Star Trek - en utopi eller dystopi?" Thesis, Halmstad University, School of Social and Health Sciences (HOS), 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-528.
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Titel: Genusframställningen i Star Trek – en utopi eller dystopi
Författare: Gustav Ekholm och Torbjörn Karlsson
Handledare: Malin Nilsson
Examinator: Veronica Stoehrel
Typ av arbete: C-uppsats i Medie och Kommunikationsvetenskap, 10p HT-06
Plats: Högskolan i Halmstad
Syfte: Uppsatsen syfte är att fastställa huruvida åtta olika avsnitt ur tv-serien Star Trek belyser genusfrågor och utmanar avsnitten i så fall de rådande genusdiskurserna.
Metod: Den här uppsatsen fokuserar på åtta Star Trek avsnitt som producerades mellan 1960-talet och 2000-talet.
Metoden för analysen är en kritisk diskursanalys med utgång från Norman Fairclougs diskurskritiska modell.
Resultat: Uppsatsens slutsats är att Star Trek-serierna berör genusfrågor i olika utsträckning beroende på vilket årtal avsnitten är från. Det konstateras också att viktiga genusämnen, likt homosexualitet, tas upp men beroende på olika omständigheter saknas ofta ett djup i framställningen.
Nyckelord: Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, science fiction, genus, diskurs, diskursanalys, textanalys, makt, tv-serier, dominansförhållanden.
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Mumme, Lisa Pollock Mumme. "Not things: gender and music in the Mad Max franchise." Thesis, University of Iowa, 2019. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/7056.
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This thesis is a study of the gender politics through musical discourse in the Mad Max series. Dystopian narratives are particularly interesting texts for study of gender because they allow for extreme hypothetical situations in worlds that are at once familiar and unfamiliar. Musical discourse in the Mad Max films both supports and complicates dominant readings of gender constructions. I consider the gender politics of the franchise, using Mad Max (1979) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) as case studies, and drawing on scholarship on gender in film music, feminist film theory, and Australian car culture. In analyzing this music, I consider its broader cultural connotations, including film music tropes and operatic character types. After considering these genre associations, I analyze the musical gestures for narrative content and consider how the placement of themes with images and dialogue influences that content, with attention to how these factors contribute to a gendered understanding of the character. As the first deep thematic analysis of music in the Mad Max films, my project extends existing scholarship on both onscreen performance and gender categorizations that include musical forces resistant to strict binary categorization. My analysis of gendered musical discourse emphasizes the power of inquiry about gender in film music to clarify, enrich, and complicate texts.
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Hoosic, Erica. "Chaosmomalia." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1575545373034738.
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Rodriguez, Nogueira François. "La société totalitaire dans le récit d'anticipation dystopique, de la première moitié du XXè siècle, et sa représentation au cinéma." Thesis, Nancy 2, 2009. http://www.theses.fr/2009NAN21030/document.
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La tradition utopique a longtemps entretenu le rêve d'une société idéale située dans un ailleurs, un u-- topos, le "lieu qui n'est pas" dans L'Utopie de Thomas More. La représentation de ces utopies est indissociable d'un facteur déterminant pour la construction d'un monde meilleur : le progrès. Ainsi, cette tradition se caractérise par l'accent prométhéen d'une telle entreprise, c'est des mains de l'homme que sera façonnée cette nouvelle société. Cependant, le point de vue sur la possibilité d'une société idéale va progressivement s'infléchir, notamment au cours du XIXe siècle, pour s'inverser d'une manière radicale au début du XXe siècle. Nommée anti-utopie ou contre-utopie, cette désillusion souligne l'impuissance de l'homme et le rôle ambigu du progrès pour inventer la société parfaite. Parfois utilisée comme synonyme d'anti-utopie, la dystopie caractérise plus précisément les textes qui décrivent une société dirigée par un système d?oppression absolu, fondé sur un État omnipotent, et presque toujours organisé scientifiquement. Ainsi, des dysfonctionnements de la cité du futur dans Le Monde tel qu'il sera d'Émile Souvestre, en 1846, à l'État Unique dans Nous autres de Evguéni Zamiatine, écrit en 1920, la dystopie évolue en prenant la forme du récit de science-fiction, et en particulier celle de l'anticipation. Nous verrons, notamment, comment l'utopie prend place dans les oeuvres de Jules Verne et H.G. Wells. Zamiatine, très inspiré par Wells, est le premier grand écrivain du XXe siècle à se servir de la dystopie pour décrire les attributs de la société totalitaire. Ainsi, si notre démarche consiste, dans un premier temps, à désigner les auteurs et textes qui ont participé à l'émergence de la dystopie, notre analyse portera essentiellement sur Nous autres et trois autres romans fondateurs de la dystopie au XXe siècle : Le Meilleur des mondes d'Aldous Huxley, publié en 1932, 1984 de George Orwell, publié en 1948 et Fahrenheit 451 de Ray Bradbury, publié en 1953. Nous étudierons le phénomène totalitaire selon les interprétations qu'en font nos auteurs. Il sera donc question de la collectivisation de l'individu, de la propagande ou du rôle de la science dans l'organisation de la société totalitaire. Mais il s'agira aussi de montrer comment nos dystopies illustrent le combat de l'art contre l'entropie totalitaire, et l'engagement de leurs auteurs dans un véritable discours politique. Enfin, il apparaît essentiel de décrire ce qui apparaît peut-être comme la forme la plus efficace de la représentation de la dystopie : le film de science-fiction. Nous verrons pourquoi le roman dystopique peine de plus en plus à soutenir la comparaison face à l'immédiateté du langage de l'image animéeThe utopian tradition a long time maintained the dream an ideal society located in one elsewhere, a u-topos, the "place which is not" in the Utopia of Thomas More. The representation of these Utopias is indissociable of a determining factor for the construction of a better world: progress. Thus, this tradition is characterized by the Promethean accent of such a company, they are hands of the man who this new society will be worked. However, the point of view on the possibility of an ideal society gradually will inflect, in particular during the 19th century, to be reversed in a radical way at the beginning of the 20th century. Named anti-Utopia or against-Utopia, this disillusion underlines the impotence of the man and the ambiguous role of progress to invent the perfect society. Sometimes used as synonym of anti-Utopia, the dystopia more precisely characterizes the texts which describe a society directed by an absolute system of oppression, based on an omnipotent State, and almost always scientifically organized. Thus, abnormal operations of the city of the future in The World such as it will be of Emile Souvestre, in 1846, in the State Unique in Us of Evgueni Zamiatine, written in 1920, the dystopia evolves by taking the form of the account of science fiction, and in particular that of anticipation. We will see, in particular, how the Utopia takes seat in works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Zamiatine, very inspired by Wells, is the first great writer of the 20th century to be made use of the dystopia to describe the attributes of the totalitarian society. Thus, if our step consists, initially, to appoint the authors and texts which took part in the emergence of the dystopia, our analysis will primarily carry on Us and three other Romance founders of the dystopia at the 20th century: Brave New World of Aldous Huxley, published into 1932, 1984 of George Orwell, published in 1948 and Fahrenheit 451 of Ray Bradbury, published in 1953. We will study the totalitarian phenomenon according to interpretations that make our authors of them. It will be thus a question of the collectivization of the individual, the propaganda or the role of science in the organization of the totalitarian society. But it will also be a question of showing how our dystopies illustrates the combat of art against the totalitarian entropy, and the engagement of their authors in a true political discourse. Lastly, it appears essential to describe what perhaps appears as the most effective form of the representation of the dystopia: the science fiction film. We will see why the novel dystopic sorrow more and more support the comparison face to the immediacy of the language of the moving image
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Hanzén, Mia. "Tillfälligheter." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för film och litteratur (IFL), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-103580.
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Skrivprojektet Tillfälligheter består av sju texter som på olika sätt binds ihop av tematiken i ordet tillfälligheter. Jag har haft intentionen att utforska hur jag i mitt skrivande kan närma mig genren science fiction. Genren är bred och ger stora möjligheter till variation och användning av fantasin utan begränsningar. Eftersom man gärna skriver det man själv gillar att läsa är det mjuk sf, alternativa världar, tidsresor och dystopier samt så kallad New Weird jag främst har fokuserat på. Science fiction försöker ofta besvara frågan "What if?" och jag har anammat den utgångspunkten i mitt arbete med projektet och utgått från att det är just tillfälligheter som har fått styra händelserna i de sju berättelserna. De sju texternas genreanpassning och stil kan kortfattat beskrivas som följer: Equinox – tidsresor; uppbyggd som en vetenskaplig uppsats och med ett retrospektivt berättande utifrån ett förstapersonsperspektiv Kalejdoskop – New Weird; hur namnens betydelser får personifiera karaktärerna 22:43 – en alternativ värld; skriven endast med dialog utan sägeverb Brunnen – dystopisk saga med stark verklighetsförankring och några stänk av skräck CCTV – teknologi, AI; om ett inanimat objekts upplevelse och tolkning av mänskligt beteende Tom Taylor – dystopi, mjuk sf (psykologi, ekologi) och samhällskritik; retrospektivt blandat med rak kronologi och cirkelrörelse Eschatos – en dystopisk omvänd travesti på Första Moseboks skapelseberättelse skriven som en dikt
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Welser, Tracie Anne. "Fantastic Visions: On the Necessity of Feminist Utopian Narrative." [Tampa, Fla.] : University of South Florida, 2005. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0001166.
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Stjernström, Elsa, and Jenny Emanuelsson. "Dystopi och jordens undergång : En genreanalys av dystopiska inslag i fiktiv film." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhällsvetenskap, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-21167.
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This study is a research on how dystopian features are expressed within different genres. The purpose is to discuss films that contain dystopian features in relation to genre and to examine if there are shared conventions in the films that can make dystopia a film genre on its own. The theoretical base includes genre theory and Rick Altman’s semantic/syntactic approach to film genre. Five films from different genres, all produced within the time period of 2000-2010, are analyzed with a semantic/syntactic approach to genre and then discussed in relation to dystopia and prior research. By using a semantic/syntactic approach to film genre it is possible to identify shared conventions. Only by using a co-ordinate semantic/syntactic approach is it possible to fully understand the interaction between conventions within a genre. The result shows that there are conventions that are characteristic for dystopia and dystopia can thus be considered a subgenre. The films analyzed in this essay share conventions characteristic for dystopia but also offer variation in form of, for example, theme. The subgenre dystopia therefore offers something familiar but also variation which is central in film genre. The analysis also shows that there are symbols that carry meaning within these films which implies that they have a common iconography.
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Lagerqvist, Anna. "”Shouldn’t I be in your position?” : En studie av klass och kön i Marie Lus Legendtrilogi." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för litteraturvetenskap och idéhistoria, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-105846.
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Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera de två huvudkaraktärerna i Marie Lus Legendtrilogi för att undersöka om och i så fall hur deras egenskaper är formade av deras klass- och könstillhörighet, vad som möjliggör eller orsakar deras klassresor samt hur de påverkas av att röra sig mellan olika samhällsklasser. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt är att det inte enbart går att analysera en maktordning utan att även ta hänsyn till andra maktordningar. Jag har utgått ifrån Maria Nikolajevas uppställning av stereotypt manliga och kvinnliga egenskaper, Roberta Seelinger Trites teorier om hur makt fungerar både förtryckande och frigörande för subjektet, samt Sanna Lehtonens teorier om normbildning kring klass som identitetskategori. I uppsatsen kommer jag fram till att karaktärernas egenskaper är mer kopplade till deras klass, och mindre till deras kön. Flickan från överklassen sätter större värde på sig själv, medan pojken från underklassen värderar sig själv lägre. Hon har även haft tillgång till utbildning som gjort henne snabb, stark och rationell, medan han inte är lika tränad som hon är och därmed mer känslostyrd. Klassresor möjliggörs av socialt och kulturellt kapital samt trogenhet gentemot landet de lever i. Karaktärerna påverkas av möten med andra klasser på så sätt att de omvärderar synen på sig själva samt förhandlar med den makt de blivit tilldelade.
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Croci, D. "'THE END WILL BE THE OVER-MAN': UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC ROMANCE AND GRAPHIC NOVEL." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2434/527570.
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Questa tesi si propone di rintracciare l’influenza dello scrittore britannico H. G. Wells sulla nascita e sviluppo dei comics di supereroi all’interno del contesto angloamericano. Per prima cosa, il lavoro esamina come i primi scientific romance di Wells – The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), e When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) – prendano le mosse dall’episteme scientifica e dalla tradizione del romance tardovittoriano per esplorare la dimensione utopica-distopica del superomismo. Quindi, la tesi analizza la penetrazione degli elementi wellsiani all’interno della cultura popolare americana di primo Novecento. Prendo in esame The Overman (1907) di Upton Sinclair, Gladiator (1930) di Philip Wylie, e “The Reign of the Super-Man” (1933) di Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster come testi di transizione che riformulano idee e motivi dello scrittore britannico per un pubblico americano, aprendo nel contempo la strada per la creazione di Superman (1938) e Batman (1939). L’obiettivo è quello di dimostrare come l’influenza diretta e indiretta di Wells sulla nascita dei fumetti di supereroi abbia contributo a determinare una duplice ambivalenza nei confronti della modernità tecnologica e dell’utopismo. Infine, la tesi analizza le modalità in cui i graphic novel di Alan Moore, composti negli anni ottanta del secolo scorso, abbiano attinto da queste ambiguità strutturali e dagli antecedenti wellsiani per negoziare la tensione tra utopismo e anti-utopismo. Sostengo che Miracleman (1982-89), V for Vendetta (1982-89) e Watchmen (1986-87) esplorino le antinomie di utopia e distopia nell’atto di decostruire gli statuti ideologici del genere supereroistico. Come revisioni postmoderne dell’archetipo popolare, questi graphic novel mettono quindi in scena il conflitto tra la modernità intrinseca del supereroe e la fine delle metanarrazioni. Il quadro metodologico per questa indagine è offerto dagli studi letterari, dai Cultural Studies e dagli studi sul fumetto. In particolare, la multidisciplinarietà e l’approccio materialista degli Studi culturali permettono di incorporare strumenti metodologici da discipline come la teoria letteraria, gli studi sull’utopia, la storiografia, la critica culturalista e la semiotica.This thesis aims at tracing the influence of British writer H.G. Wells (1866-1946) on the birth and development of Anglo-American superhero comics. First, it considers the way in which Wells’s early scientific romances – The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), and When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) – stemmed from the late-Victorian scientific episteme and romantic tradition to explore the utopian and dystopian possibilities of superhumanity. Then, it sets out to analyze the percolation of Wellsian motifs through early-twentieth century American popular culture. I take into account Upton Sinclair’s The Overman (1907), Philip Wylie’s Gladiator (1930), and Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s “The Reign of the Super-Man” (1933) as transitional works that on the one hand reformulated Wells’s ideas and tropes for an American audience, and on the other hand paved the way for the creation of Superman (1938) and Batman (1939). The aim is to demonstrate that Wells’s direct and indirect influence on the inception of superhero comic books contributed to produce a twofold ambivalence about technological modernity and utopianism. Finally, this work scrutinizes the way in which Alan Moore’s 1980s graphic novels drew both on these structural ambiguities and their Wellsian predecessors to negotiate the tension between utopianism and anti-utopianism. I argue that Miracleman (1982-89), V for Vendetta (1982-89) and Watchmen (1986-87) explore the antinomies of utopia and dystopia as they deconstruct the ideological assumptions of the superhero genre. As postmodern revisions of the archetype, these graphic novels problematize superheroes’s modernity vis-à-vis the end of metanarratives. A combination of literary studies, cultural studies and studies on comics/graphic novels provide the methodological framework for this work. In particular, I rely on cultural studies’ multi-disciplinary approach and materialist mode of inquiry to incorporate analytical tools from literary theory, utopian studies, historiography, cultural criticism, and semiotics.
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Oliveira, Priscilla Pellegrino de. "A Ordem e o caos: diferentes momentos da literatura distópica de ficção científica." Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, 2010. http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=1822.
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Esta dissertação objetiva discutir a importância do momento histórico na construção da narrativa de um romance de ficção científica, tomando como base as obras Admirável mundo novo (1932), do escritor inglês Aldous Huxley, e O canal de execução (2007), do romancista escocês Ken MacLeod. A primeira obra descreve uma sociedade distópica em um futuro distante, que revela, porém, aspectos obviamente evidentes das décadas de 1920 e 1930. A segunda, tratando de um plausível futuro próximo da humanidade, apesar de apresentar uma alternativa à História do período entre os anos 2000 e 2007, refere-se claramente a preocupações presentes nas mentes do indivíduo pós-moderno. Os diferentes momentos em que se inserem as obras analisadas o período entreguerras e o início do século XXI, respectivamente permitem que sejam elaboradas considerações a partir de definições de utopia e distopia concebidas ao longo da história do pensamento utópico, principalmente através de perspectivas sociopolíticas relevantes para os períodos em questão, procurando destacar de que maneira a História se faz presente nas narrativas de Huxley e de MacLeod em telaThis dissertation aims at discussing the importance of the historical moment in the construction of the narrative of a Science Fiction novel, focusing on Brave New World (1932), by the English writer Aldous Huxley, and The Execution Channel (2007), by the Scottish novelist Ken MacLeod. The first one describes a dystopic society in a distant future, revealing, however, evident aspects of the 1920s and the 1930s. The second one, which is about a plausible near future for humankind, though presenting an alternative to the History of the period between 2000 and 2007, clearly refers to worries on the post-modern individuals mind. The different moments in which the analyzed novels are inserted the interwar period and the beginning of the twenty-first century, respectively allow us to make some considerations starting from definitions of utopia and dystopia conceived along the history of utopic thought, especially through sociopolitical perspectives which are relevant to the periods in question, attempting to emphasize how History is present in Huxleys and MacLeods narratives under consideration
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Fredriksson, Erik. "The Human Animal : An Ecocritical View of Animal Imagery in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-23625.
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The early twentieth century saw the beginning of modern environmentalism. Intellectuals dreamed up solutions to the world’s problems and hoped for a better future being made possible by advances in science and technology. However, Aldous Huxley produced Brave New World which, as this essay argues, mocks the enthusiasm of his intellectual peers. The dystopian novel depicts a future in which technology dehumanizes the population, and uses a great deal of animal imagery to make this point. This essay analyses the use of animal imagery from an ecocritical perspective arguing that the “pathetic fallacy” is reversed. By examining the use of biotechnology and central planning in the novel, and applying the ecocritical perspective that humanity and nature are part of a whole, this essay argues that society resembles a farm for human animals, which is partly expressed by Huxley’s use of the image of a bee colony. The argument is presented that Huxley satirizes his environmentally concerned peers by depicting a totalitarian state which, though unconcerned with environmental issues, echoes the eco-fascist methods proposed by the author’s friends and family.
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Campbell, Stuart. "Fabricating humans: From H.G. Wells' Morlock to Karel Čapek's Robot via Zamyatin's OneState & E.M. Forster's Machine." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2009. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1867.
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This thesis traces the inter-relation between human/machine hybrid figures, imagination and “human” subjectivity through the early science fiction of H. G. Wells, Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, E. M. Forster's “The Machine Stops” and Karel Čapek's R.U.R.. It demonstrates how the “human” operates in a state of flux, in parallel with its environment which both defines and is defined by the “human.” I argue that all four writers use social satire and machine tropes to explore and critique the effects of industrialization upon, and the tension between, society as a whole and the individual in society. I argue that in The Time Machine, When the Sleeper Wakes, The First Men in the Moon, We, and “The Machine Stops,” Wells, Zamyatin and Forster create worlds where technocratic authorities apply science to create closed-system, totalitarian states. The thesis explores how these authors privilege creativity as crucial to “human” existence and use fantasy to create future societies critical of industrialization’s dehumanization of the individual. In these early twentieth century texts, network models are interrupting the clockwork. If one applies N. Katherine Hayles’ pattern/randomness dialectic, emergent human behaviours are noise disrupting the rigid pattern of the closed-system state, causing it to assume a higher complexity. In the late twentieth century, Donna Haraway, and others, wrote against technocratic authority’s employment of network models, focusing upon cybernetics. Yet prior to World War Two, Wells, Zamyatin, Forster and Čapek also wrote against technocratic totalitarianism, centring their fiction upon mechanical engineering and the machine (rather than information theory) to create versions of industrial/mechanical man. Thus, this thesis demonstrates that Haraway’s ‘cyborg’ is an echo of these earlier industrial anti-authoritarian figures—robots. The driving force in these narratives is the realization of technocracy’s application of science to completely control the individual, eliminate diversity and facilitate totalitarianism.
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Carabédian, Alice. "Le devenir-autre de l'utopie : représentations d'un imaginaire politique conflictuel dans le Cycle de la Culture d'Iain M. Banks." Thesis, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016USPCC322.
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Il est difficile de ne pas concevoir l’utopie du côté de la rupture : division spatiale originelle, tension temporelle, désaccord critique. Pourtant les théories et attaques des anti-utopistes voient dans l’utopie un monde illusoire voire inutile, clos, signant la fin des temps et potentiellement dangereux pour l’humanité. Et si l’utopie n’était pas le programme de la société meilleure à réaliser, mais bien au contraire une pratique transgressive, une apparition de discontinuité dans notre « ici et maintenant », un excès qui vient doubler le réel plutôt qu’un possible à réaliser dans le futur ?Iain M. Banks est un auteur de science-fiction contemporain original et audacieux, qui, conscient des dangers inhérents à l’utopie, a su jouer avec ces limites pour proposer une société utopique totalement inédite : cette utopie s’appelle la Culture. Comment réinvestir singulièrement l’utopie ? Comment la science-fiction – et plus précisément le genre du space-opéra – permet-elle de mettre en scène des problématiques politiques dignes d’un intérêt philosophique ?Iain M. Banks imagine une utopie tout entière tournée vers la rencontre, la proximité, la nouveauté. Subvertissant les traditions utopique et science-fictionnelle, le Cycle de la Culture est traversé par l’altérité et le conflit. Ces deux caractéristiques sont les fils directeurs de cette thèse qui vise à reconceptualiser l’utopie dans une perspective philosophique, politique et littéraire, en travaillant les représentations du discours utopique au sein du laboratoire science fictionnel.Ce discours prend ici trois formes : dystopie, hétérotopie, (e)utopie. Ensemble, elles dessinent une « culture utopique radicale »It is difficult not to conceive utopia as a rupture: through original spatial division, temporal tension, critical discordance. Yet, theories and attacks from anti-utopians consider utopia as an illusory world, even useless, enclosed, marking the end of times and potentially dangerous for humanity. What if utopia was not the programme of a better society to realize,but instead a transgressive practice, an apparition of discontinuity in our « now and here », an excess which overtakes reality rather than a possible that has yet to be realized in the future? Iain M. Banks is a contemporary, original and audacious science-fiction author, who,aware of the inherent dangers of utopia, has known how to challenge these limits in order to provide a completely unique utopian society: this utopia is called the Culture. How to critically reinvest utopia? How can science fiction – and more precisely the genre of space-opera – depict political issues, worthy of philosophical enquiry? Iain M. Banks imagines a space for utopia, entirely oriented towards encounter,proximity, and novelty. Subverting science-fictional and utopian traditions, notions of alterity and conflict span the Culture Cycle. These two characteristics are the guiding principles of this dissertation, which aims at reconceptualizing utopia through a philosophical, political and literary perspective, by way of analysing the representations of utopian discourses within the science-fictional laboratory. These discourses take three shapes: dystopia, heterotopia, (e)utopia. Together, they outline a “radical utopian culture”
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Gripenvik, Christian. "Is/Ice." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för film och litteratur (IFL), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-95589.
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Romanen ”Is” utspelar sig i en fiktiv framtid och skildrar ett Sverige i svallvågorna avklimatförändringarna. Landet styrs av auktoritära högerpartier som har infört strikt kontrollpå befolkningstillväxten genom att unga män steriliseras efter att ha donerat spermaoch senare i livet får ansöka om att skaffa barn.Inom ramen för det här arbetet skildras samhället ur två perspektiv:1. Chinua kommer som flykting till Sverige och försöker starta ett nytt liv, men möterhårt motstånd från både samhällsapparaten och befolkningen. I desperation tvingashan sälja sin kropp, eller snarare sina spermier, till barnlösa kvinnor.2. I det inhägnade samhället Gränna bor Arwen och Viggo. De har fyra barn och ärbåda högt uppsatta i samhällsadministrationen och näringslivet. Arwen är den mest karriärmässigtdrivna, medan Viggo känner sig mer utanför. Skillnaderna mellan dem växeri takt med att samhället radikaliseras och de driver sakta isär, samtidigt som de vinnläggersig om att upprätthålla en polerad fasad.Syftet är att skildra ett framtida Sverige ur flera perspektiv så att möjliga svagheteroch styrkor visas upp. Chinuas perspektiv utgår från positionen ”ute, vill in”, en personsom utan eget förskyllande befinner sig utanför gemenskapen och kämpar för att bli endel av den. Chinua har tidigare försökt hitta en plats i andra europeiska länder, menmisslyckats och därför tagit sig vidare till Sverige. Arwen och Viggo-perspektivet äristället ”inne, vill vara kvar”, vilket ger möjlighet att gestalta den styrande delen av samhället,där de som passar in och tror på systemet lever.Planen är att i framtiden utöka romanen med ytterligare två perspektiv: ett om detbarndrömmande paret Jani och Dani, som får avslag på sin ansökan om att skaffa barn(också ett ”inne, vill vara kvar”-perspektiv, men underifrån); ett om de som valt att lämnadet nya Sverige och försöka bygga en alternativ gemenskap längre norrut (”ute, villvara ute”). Inom de respektive perspektiven är det också meningen att det ska finnas nyanseroch glidningar, och centrala personer kommer att skifta tillhörighet.Till planen hör också att vidareutveckla världsbygget med centrala frågor som temperaturhöjningoch havsnivåhöjning och deras bredare konsekvenser, samt att utforskaframtida teknisk utveckling och dess effekter på samhället och hur människor umgås.
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Glover, Jayne Ashleigh. ""A complex and delicate web" : a comparative study of selected speculative novels by Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy /." [S.l. : s.n.], 2007. http://eprints.ru.ac.za/1001/.
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Hellgren, Per. "Mord i framtidslandet : Samhällskritiken i Per Wahlöös framtidsromaner." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för historia och samtidsstudier, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-19250.
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This paper investigates the science fiction novels of Swedish crime writer Per Wahlöö, most famous for his collaboration with his writing partner Maj Sjöwall on the ten Martin Beck mysteries. During two important years, 1964 and 1968, Wahlöö wrote the novels Murder On the 31st Floor and The Steel Spring, set in a near future land ruled by a social fascist power structure where political opposition is eradicated. The pretexted notion of this paper is that these novels consists of extensive quantities of criticism against the Swedish welfare state and the monopoly-capitalistic Swedish press during the sixties. Through the lens of science fiction theory and the notion of the novels as historical sources this paper concludes that Per Wahlöö´s science fiction becomes a bridge between the classic Swedish detective novel and the new social critic crime fiction in the style of Sjöwall-Wahlöö and others. The novels are also representations of the historical process in the mid-sixties during the radical turn: the sci-fi novels as social criticism of the contemporary society – an utopian flare. Other conclusions of this paper are the connections between Wahlöö´s novels and marxist critical theory as well as their relation to the Swedish labour literature´s view on the individual in the modern society. Especially Murder On the 31st Floor forebodes a lot of the radical marxist criticism so widely spread in the latter part of the sixties.
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Saldías, Rossel Gabriel Alejandro. "En el peor lugar posible: teoría de lo distópico y su presencia en la narrativa tardofranquista española (1965 – 1975)." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/295707.
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La atención histórica de la crítica en torno al fenómeno de la literatura distópica ha estado centrada generalmente sobre las producciones provenientes del mundo anglosajón, en particular sobre los tres distópicos clásicos: Aldous Huxley, George Orwell y Ray Bradbury, inauguradores del género en cuestión. La academia hispánica, por contraste, rara vez se ha preocupado por examinar la extensión de la influencia distópica en el territorio español ni, mucho menos, su configuración específica en la literatura ibérica. Atendiendo a esto, la hipótesis central de este trabajo busca plantear que efectivamente ha existido una tradición literaria distópica española, que no solo ha respondido y reflejado las influencias de las obras inglesas y americanas, sino que, gracias a décadas de práctica, las ha expandido y adaptado al contexto específico de la realidad ibérica durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX, creando, en el proceso, obras narrativas originales y de gran valor tanto literario como cultural.
Para intentar ser lo más exhaustivos posibles en la descripción del fenómeno distópico, el presente estudio se encuentra dividido en tres partes: evolución diacrónica de la distopía narrativa, configuración literaria de lo distópico y la presencia de lo distópico en la narrativa española tardofranquista (1965 – 1975). La primera sección, como su nombre lo indica, pretende otorgar un marco de evolución cronológica general de la distopía narrativa en el contexto anglosajón desde finales del siglo XIX hasta principios del siglo XXI, atendiendo a las principales obras y aproximaciones teóricas que han intentado hacerse cargo de la explicación del fenómeno a lo largo del tiempo. La segunda parte del estudio, por otro lado, busca problematizar los conceptos teóricos establecidos durante la revisión histórica, discutiendo y redefiniendo los aspectos fundamentales de la construcción literaria distópica desde una perspectiva tanto formal como funcional. Finalmente, la tercera parte del trabajo retoma los componentes teóricos y literarios definidos durante los apartados anteriores y los aplica sobre un corpus de obras representativas del fenómeno distópico español durante los últimos diez años del franquismo, período clave en la evolución de la tradición ibérica, estableciendo un puente entre la problemática realidad cultural de España durante la época y las producciones narrativas no miméticas del período.
De esta forma, a través tanto de una discusión en torno a los componentes literarios y culturales de las formas narrativas, el funcionamiento retórico de lo utópico, la configuración ideológica y el entendimiento teórico de la literatura distópica; así como también mediante un análisis crítico, extendido y comprensivo de la narrativa española producida durante los últimos diez años del régimen franquista, que abarca tanto la producción de autores celebrados como Miguel Delibes y Francisco García Pavón, así como también los trabajos de otros autores menos conocidos como Enrique Jarnés, Antonio Burgos y Jorge Ferrer-Vidal, es que la presente tesis doctoral pretende probar el importante alcance e influencia que lo distópico ha tenido en España desde principios del siglo XX y cómo es que esta forma narrativa se ha ido convirtiendo con el paso del tiempo en una práctica no mimética de gran relevancia literaria y cultural.Critical attention towards dystopian literature has been, for the most part, historically focused on the Anglo-Saxon narrative of the 19th and 20th century, particularly on the novels of those considered the three “classical dystopians”: Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Ray Bradbury. Hispanic academia, on the other hand, has seldom preoccupied itself with examining the influence of these dystopias in Spanish literature, not to mention the little attention given to the structural composition of these particular kind of narratives in the Iberian Peninsula. With this historical and theoretical background in consideration, the main hypothesis of this study seeks to posit that there is a very specific dystopian tradition present in 20th century Spanish narrative that not only shows the evident influence of its North American and English predecessors, but that also expands it and adapts it so that it may accurately reflect the Spanish context of the second half of the 20th century, creating, in the process, a plethora of highly original and aesthetically interesting works of literary fiction. In order to be as exhaustive as possible in our examination of the dystopian phenomenon, this thesis had been divided in three main sections: diachronic evolution of the narrative dystopia, literary configuration of the dystopian and presence of the dystopian in late-Franquist narrative (1965 – 1975). The first part of the study, as indicated by its name, seeks to provide a comprehensible and coherent historical and theoretical frame regarding the different stages of evolution of dystopia over time, as well as the different theories that have tried to explain it over the years, from the last decades of the 19th century to the first ones of the 21st. On a more theoretical front, the second part of the research seeks to problematize and deepen the meaning of many of the concepts introduced during the first section, discussing and redefining the fundamental aspects of the literary dystopian constitution from both a formal and a functional perspective. Finally, the last part of the research recuperates the theoretical and literary propositions made in previous chapters and applies them in the analysis of a very heterogeneous corpus of Spanish narratives written during the last 10 years of the Franquist regime, a historical moment that was pivotal for the evolution of the Spanish dystopian tradition, during which these kind of novels and short stories allowed the dissatisfied intellectuals and creative minds of the country to criticize the totalitarian regime in which they lived via the creation of non-mimetic and imaginative societies. Thus, through the discussion on the cultural and literary components of the narrative forms, the rhetorical functioning of the utopian, the ideological configuration and the theoretical and structural understanding of the dystopian literature; and as also by taking into account the critical, comprehensive and profound body of Spanish narrative produced during the last 10 years of the Franqiust era –period that includes celebrated authors such as Miguel Delibes and Francisco Garcia Pavón, as well as other less renowned names, like Enrique Jarnés, Antonio Burgos and Jorge Ferrer-Vidal–, is that the present thesis seeks to prove the remarkable importance the dystopian, both as a cultural and literary phenomenon, has had in shaping the literature of the last century in the Spanish territory and explain why its practice has only grown over time and will continue to do so in the following years.
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ROMANZI, Valentina (ORCID:0000-0002-7995-3917). "Incubi americani: la distopia nella narrativa statunitense del ventunesimo secolo." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Bergamo, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10446/186142.
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Questa tesi indaga la produzione distopica nella narrativa statunitense del ventunesimo secolo. Utilizzando un impianto metodologico derivante dalla sociologia, si teorizza una correlazione tra la crisi del mito della Frontiera e dell'Eccezionalismo americano e il rinnovato interesse per i mondi distopici.
La prima parte è dedicata alla definizione e all'inquadramento del concetto di distopia e alla descrizione dello status dei miti americani. La seconda parte si concentra sulle analisi testuali: i tre capitoli che la compongono riflettono i sottogeneri della distopia politica, tecnologica ed ecologica.This dissertation investigates dystopia in twenty-first-century U.S. fiction. Using a methodological framework based on sociology, it theorises a correlation between the crisis of the Frontier myth and of American exceptionalism and a renewed interest for dystopian worlds. Part One is dedicated to the definition and exploration of the concept of dystopia and to the description of the status of the American myths. Part Two focuses on textual analyses: its three chapters mirror the sub-genres of political, technological, and environmental dystopia.
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Dujarric, Florence. "La ville de Rebus : polarités urbaines dans les romans d'Ian Rankin (1987-2007)." Phd thesis, Université de la Sorbonne nouvelle - Paris III, 2013. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01015364.
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La présente étude analyse les représentations de la ville dans la série policière d'Ian Rankin dont l'inspecteur John Rebus est le protagoniste. La polarité étant l'un des principes organisateurs de l'écriture rankinienne, notre analyse s'articule autour de plusieurs couples de notions antinomiques. Nous remettons d'abord en cause la légitimité de l'antinomie qui oppose la littérature à la " littérature de masse ", dans laquelle est souvent classé le roman policier. Cela nous conduit à redéfinir le roman policier, et mettre en perspective la série dans le contexte du monde littéraire et artistique écossais contemporain. Puis nous étudions l'articulation entre topographie réelle et lieu imaginaire dans l'Edimbourg de Rankin. Toute une géographie urbaine se dessine dans les romans ; l'arpentage incessant de l'espace par le protagoniste fournit l'occasion de références très spécifiques à la topographie et à la toponymie, et la sérialité tisse peu à peu un dense réseau de points nodaux ainsi qu'une multiplicité de trajets potentiels que nous avons représentés par des cartes fournies en annexe. Mais dans d'autres cas, l'espace se fait générique, se réfère plus à des conventions cinématographiques qu'à la carte de la ville. Nous envisageons enfin la ville d'Edimbourg comme un personnage ambivalent dans la lignée des personnages du roman gothique. La filiation gothique est perceptible dans l'esthétique de la ville, et la surface de la carte est compartimentée suivant un ensemble d'axes polarisants. Toutefois, cette carte se déploie elle-même par-dessus un double souterrain et non cartographiable d'Edimbourg, à la fois mémoire et inconscient de la ville.
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Ivarsson, Marcus. "Ultima Thule." Thesis, Konstfack, Grafisk design & illustration, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:konstfack:diva-6918.
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The graduation work Ultima Thule made up by four parts, the first one is a science fiction world buliding made up of scripts, notes and sketches, the second one is a science fiction comic book in the edition of 200 with the name Everything in one place, this is the first part of the Ultima Thule-world. The third part is this report with text explaining the work process, and the third part was the participation in the Konstfack Spring Exhibition, this is also described in the report. Ultima Thule is a narrative about the end of humanity set in three Swedish cities; Västerås, Uppsala and Stockholm.
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Glover, Jayne Ashleigh. ""A complex and delicate web" : a comparative study of selected speculative novels by Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002241.
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This thesis examines selected speculative novels by Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy. It argues that a specifiable ecological ethic can be traced in their work – an ethic which is explored by them through the tensions between utopian and dystopian discourses. The first part of the thesis begins by theorising the concept of an ecological ethic of respect for the Other through current ecological philosophies, such as those developed by Val Plumwood. Thereafter, it contextualises the novels within the broader field of science fiction, and speculative fiction in particular, arguing that the shift from a critical utopian to a critical dystopian style evinces their changing treatment of this ecological ethic within their work. The remainder of the thesis is divided into two parts, each providing close readings of chosen novels in the light of this argument. Part Two provides a reading of Le Guin’s early Hainish novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Word for World is Forest and The Dispossessed, followed by an examination of Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time, Lessing’s The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five, and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The third, and final, part of the thesis consists of individual chapters analysing the later speculative novels of each author. Piercy’s He, She and It, Le Guin’s The Telling, and Atwood’s Oryx and Crake are all scrutinised, as are Lessing’s two recent ‘Ifrik’ novels. This thesis shows, then, that speculative fiction is able to realise through fiction many of the ideals of ecological thinkers. Furthermore, the increasing dystopianism of these novels reflects the greater urgency with which the problem of Othering needs to be addressed in the light of the present global ecological crisis.