Political Theory Science Fiction And Utopian Literature

Author : Tony Burns
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2010-02-19
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780739144879

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Political Theory, Science Fiction, and Utopian Literature by Tony Burns Pdf

Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed is of interest to political theorists partly because of its association with anarchism and partly because it is thought to represent a turning point in the history of utopian/dystopian political thought and literature and of science fiction. Published in 1974, it marked a revival of utopianism after decades of dystopian writing. According to this widely accepted view The Dispossessed represents a new kind of literary utopia, which Tom Moylan calls a 'critical utopia.' The present work challenges this reading of The Dispossessed and its place in the histories of utopian/dystopian literature and science fiction. It explores the difference between traditional literary utopia and novels and suggests that The Dispossessed is not a literary utopia but a novel about utopianism in politics. Le Guin's concerns have more to do with those of the novelists of the 19th century writing in the tradition of European Realism than they do with the science fiction or utopian literature. It also claims that her theory of the novel has an affinity with the ancient Greek tragedy. This implies that there is a conservatism in Le Guin's work as a creative writer, or as a novelist, which fits uneasily with her personal commitment to anarchism.

Author : Donald M. Hassler,Clyde Wilcox
Publisher : Univ of South Carolina Press
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1997
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 1570031134

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Political Science Fiction by Donald M. Hassler,Clyde Wilcox Pdf

As the science fiction writer Frederik Pohl observes in the lead essay, the contributors collectively find science fiction to be either implicitly or explicitly political by its very nature.

Author : Darko Suvin
Publisher : Peter Lang
Page : 624 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Aufsatzsammlung
ISBN : 3039114034

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Defined by a Hollow by Darko Suvin Pdf

Darko Suvin explores utopian horizons in fiction & utopian/dystopian readings of historical reality since the 1970s, focusing in the United States & United Kingdom, but drawing also on French, German & Russian sources.

Author : Barbara Goodwin
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781136337567

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The Philosophy of Utopia by Barbara Goodwin Pdf

This collection addresses the important function of utopianism in social and political philosophy and includes debate on what its future role will be in a period dominated by dystopian nightmare scenarios.

Author : Judith Grant,Sean Parson
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2020-11-05
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781793630643

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Representations of Political Resistance and Emancipation in Science Fiction by Judith Grant,Sean Parson Pdf

In a world in which political opportunity and liberation seem far away, the genre of science fiction grows in cultural importance and popularity. The contributors to this collection are political and social theorists from a range of disciplines who use science fiction as inspiration for new theories and examples of speculative politics. In dystopian governments, they find locations and forms of resistance. Representations of Political Resistance and Emancipation in Science Fiction explores a range of political and social theoretical concerns for the twenty-first century. Contributors analyze themes of post-humanism, resistance, agency, political community making, and ethics and politics during the Anthropocene.

Author : Adam Stock
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2018-10-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781317326922

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Modern Dystopian Fiction and Political Thought by Adam Stock Pdf

Over the past few years, ‘dystopia’ has become a word with increasing cultural currency. This volume argues that we live in dystopian times, and more specifically that a genre of fiction called "dystopia" has, above others, achieved symbolic cultural value in representing fears and anxieties about the future. As such, dystopian fictions do not merely mirror what is happening in the world: in becoming such a ready referent for discussions about such varied topics as governance, popular culture, security, structural discrimination, environmental disasters and beyond, the narrative conventions and generic tropes of dystopian fiction affect the ways in which we grapple with contemporary political problems, economic anxieties and social fears. The volume addresses the development of the narrative methods and generic conventions of dystopian fiction as a mode of socio-political critique across the first half of the twentieth century. It examines how a series of texts from an age of political extremes contributed to political discourse and rhetoric both in its contemporary setting and in the terms in which we increasingly cast our cultural anxieties. Focusing on interactions between temporality, spatiality and narrative, the analysis unpicks how the dystopian interacts with social and political events, debates and ideas, Stock evaluates modern dystopian fiction as a historically responsive mode of political literature. He argues that amid the terrors and upheavals of the first half of the twentieth century, dystopian fiction provided a unique space for writers to engage with historical and contemporary political thought in a mode that had popular cultural appeal. Combining literary analysis informed by critical theory and the history of political thought with archival-based historical research, this volume works to shed new light on the intersection of popular culture and world politics. It will be of interest to students and scholars in literary studies, cultural and intellectual history, politics and international relations.

Author : Michael A. Allen,Justin S. Vaughn
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2016-03-10
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781317266754

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Poli Sci Fi by Michael A. Allen,Justin S. Vaughn Pdf

Poli Sci Fi: An Introduction to Political Science through Science Fiction allows readers, students, and instructors to explore the multiple worlds of science fiction while gaining a firm grasp of core political science concepts. This carefully composed text is comprised of sixteen brief chapters, each of which takes a prominent science fiction film or television episode and uses it to explore fundamental components of political science. The book is designed to serve as a supplemental text for undergraduate political science courses, especially Introduction to Political Science. The structure and content of the volume is shaped around the organization and coverage of several leading texts in this area, and includes major parts devoted to theory and epistemology, political behavior, institutions, identity, states, and inter-state relations. Its emphasis on science fiction—and particularly on popular movies and television programs—speaks to the popularity of the genre as well as the growing understanding that popular culture can be an extraordinarily successful vehicle for communicating difficult yet foundational concepts, especially to introductory level college students.

Author : Merlin Coverley
Publisher : Oldcastle Books
Page : 132 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2012-04-05
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781842438732

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Utopia by Merlin Coverley Pdf

For more than 2,000 years utopian visionaries have sought to create a blueprint of the ideal society: from Plato to HG Wells, from Cloud cuckoo land to Shangri-La, the utopian impulse has generated a vast body of work, encompassing philosophy and political theory, classical literature and science fiction. And yet these utopian dreams have often turned to nightmare, as utopia gives way to its dark reflection, dystopia. Utopia takes the reader on a journey through these imaginary worlds, charting the progress of utopian ideas from their origins within the classical world, to the rebirth of utopian ideals in the Middle Ages. Later we see the emergence of socialist and feminist ideas; while the twentieth century was to be dominated by expressions of totalitarian oppression. From the novel to the political manifesto, from satire to science fiction, utopias have always reflected the age that gave rise to them, and this guide will explore this historical context, offering both an analysis of the key texts and an account of their political and cultural background. Today, it is claimed that we are witnessing the death of utopia, as increasingly the ideals that give rise to them are undermined or dismissed. These arguments are explored and evaluated here, and contemporary examples of utopian thought used to demonstrate the enduring relevance of the utopian tradition. 'Crams a lot of information into a slim guide...Cleverly written' - Fortean Times 'Although a slim paperback, this book turns out to be quite exhaustive on the chosen topic and, in its brevity, to be quite original in its perspective as well' - Modern Language Review

Author : Hoda M. Zaki
Publisher : Millefleurs
Page : 168 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 1988
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : STANFORD:36105040951936

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Phoenix Renewed by Hoda M. Zaki Pdf

Author : Wiebke Saathoff
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
Page : 40 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2017-10-10
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9783668545526

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An Ambiguous Utopia. The Concept of Utopia in Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Dispossessed" by Wiebke Saathoff Pdf

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Hannover, language: English, abstract: Ursula K. Le Guin’s" The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia" is a science fiction novel from 1974, often conceived as a blueprint for an anarchist society. "The Dispossessed" presents the reader a juxtaposition of Anarres and its sister planet Urras which houses a society based on capitalism. The aim of the present paper is to explore the location of utopia in "The Dispossessed". Is it a utopia as ambiguous as its subtitle declares? The paper argues that Le Guin's novel in many respects coincides with the concept of a critical utopia. Whereas it is true that both Urras and Anarres display many features that could be considered utopian, "The Dispossessed" equally presents the flaws of its society which, as this paper suggests, relativises their status as the ideal place. The second part of the paper reflects upon the circumstance that both planets are introduced to the reader in the course of a dual narrative, which presents the plotline in alternating chapters on Urras and Anarres. It examines the narrative focus on the protagonist Shevek and his experience of the societies in the light of Tom Moylan's and Ernst Bloch's concepts of utopia. The paper concludes that this ambiguous mode of narration, switching in time and place, firstly portrays a concept of utopia which is dynamic and embedded in historicity and secondly expresses the importance of individual action and initiative for the realisation of utopia.

Author : Pere Gallardo,Elizabeth Russell
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 410 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2014-03-26
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781443858779

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Yesterday's Tomorrows by Pere Gallardo,Elizabeth Russell Pdf

2012 was a year of financial crises and ecological disasters, of endings and forebodings. The world did not end on December 21st as the Mayan calendar predicted, but became the stage for new beginnings, utopian communities, protest groups and solidarity movements. The essays in this book form an intertextual space for negotiating meaningful facts and fictions with an aim to understanding the present. Discussions focus on utopia and dystopia from literature and film, not only within the framework of science fiction but also critical theory, gender politics and social sciences. The authors of these essays are international academics whose interest lies in utopian studies and who attended the 13th International Conference of Utopian Studies, “The Shape of Things to Come”, held in Tarragona, Spain, in 2012.

Author : Ralph Pordzik
Publisher : Rodopi
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9789042026025

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Futurescapes by Ralph Pordzik Pdf

This book testifies to the growing interest in the many spaces of utopia. It intends to 'map out' on utopian and science-fiction discourses some of the new and revisionist models of spatial analysis applied in Literary and Cultural Studies in recent years. The aim of the volume is to side-step the established generic binary of utopia and dystopia or science fiction and thus to open the analysis of utopian literature to new lines of inquiry. The essays collected here propose to think of utopias not so much as fictional texts about future change and transformation but as vital elements in a cultural process through which social, spatial and subjective identities are formed. Utopias can thus be read as textual systems implying a distinct spatial and temporal dimension; as 'spatial practices' that tend to naturalize a cultural and social construction - that of the 'good life', the radically improved welfare state, the Christian paradise, the counter-society, etc. - and make that representation operational by interpellating their readers in some determinate relation to their givenness as sites of political and individual improvement. This volume is of interest for all scholars and students of literature who wish to explore the ways in which utopias of the past and recent present have circulated as media of cultural exchange and homogenization, as sites of cultural and linguistic appropriation and as foci for the spatial formation of national and regional identities in the English-speaking world.

Author : Zsolt Cziganyik
Publisher : Central European University Press
Page : 265 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2017-03-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9789633862438

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Utopian Horizons by Zsolt Cziganyik Pdf

The 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia has directed attention toward the importance of utopianism. This book investigates the possibilities of cooperation between the humanities and the social sciences in the analysis of 20th century and contemporary utopian phenomena. The papers deal with major problems of interpreting utopias, the relationship of utopia and ideology, and the highly problematic issue as to whether utopia necessarily leads to dystopia. Besides reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary utopian investigations, the eleven essays effectively represent the constructive attitudes of utopian thought, a feature that not only defines late 20th- and 21st-century utopianism, but is one of the primary reasons behind the rising importance of the topic. The volume’s originality and value lies not only in the innovative theoretical approaches proposed, but also in the practical application of the concept of utopia to a variety of phenomena which have been neglected in the utopian studies paradigm, especially to the rarely discussed Central European texts and ideologies.

Author : Tom Moylan,Raffaella Baccolini
Publisher : Peter Lang
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Foreign Language Study
ISBN : 303910912X

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Utopia Method Vision by Tom Moylan,Raffaella Baccolini Pdf

This collection addresses the ways in which the contributors approach their study of the objects and practices of utopianism (understood as social anticipations and visions produced through texts and social experiments) and of how, in turn, those objects and practices have shaped their intellectual work and research perspectives.

Author : A. Sawyer,P. Wright
Publisher : Springer
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2011-03-24
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780230300392

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Teaching Science Fiction by A. Sawyer,P. Wright Pdf

Teaching Science Fiction is the first text in thirty years to explore the pedagogic potential of that most intellectually stimulating and provocative form of popular literature: science fiction. Innovative and academically lively, it offers valuable insights into how SF can be taught historically, culturally and practically at university level.