Dystopia

About: Dystopia is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2146 publications have been published within this topic receiving 15163 citations. The topic is also known as: cacotopia.

Empirical Technoscience Studies in a Comtean World: Too Much Concreteness?

Abstract: No one doubts the radically transformative power of contemporary technologies and technoscientific practices over the material dimensions of our experience. Yet with the coming of all the exciting changes and the promise of ever better material conditions, what kinds of lives are we implicitly being encouraged to live? One would think that current philosophical studies of technology would make this a central question, and indeed, a few have done so. But many do not. Following the lead of thinkers who have made the so-called “empirical turn,” many demur, usually with some remarks about the question being too abstract and general—too likely to suck us into utopian or dystopian speculations—when what is called for are truly informative and “concrete” studies of what it is like to be with actual technologies. My paper considers the good life question—and the philosophical price one pays for not asking it—in light of Auguste Comte’s theory of the three stages of intellectual development. Comte’s depiction of the third, positive scientific stage is much less dated than one might assume. In fact, it is useful to think of our own era as arriving with a Comtean story attached, that is, a story of life in the “developed” world becoming ever better thanks to modern science and technology. Because this story now seems less deserving of the unqualified optimism Comte had about it, I argue that thinking of our own experience as permeated by Comte’s conception of third-stage life gives us a fresh way to consider our misgivings about this default position without either lapsing into utopian or dystopian speculation, or confining one’s focus to purely postphenomenological or pragmatic studies of technoscientific life as it now “appears.”

Women's Utopias in British and American Fiction

Abstract: Utopian writing offers a fascinating panorama of social visions; and the related forms of dystopia and anti-utopian satire extend this into the range of social nightmares. Originally published in 1988, this comparative study of utopian fiction by British and American women writers demonstrates the continuity of a well-established, but little-known, tradition, emphasising its range and diversity, and providing ample evidence of women’s aspirations and documenting the restrictions and exclusions in private and public life that their novels challenge. Historically, the growth of each national tradition is traced in relation to social and political movements, particularly the suffrage movement and contemporary feminism. Comparatively, the quite different responses of British and American women to what are in many instances the same social problems are examine in the light of changing expectations. Definitions of human nature and gender relationships are assessed on a nature/culture continuum as a means of understanding this change. Women’s attitudes to their social and political roles, their working lives, to sexuality, marriage and the family are reflected in their visions of fruitful change; and so also is the impact of two world wars, socialism and fascism, the debate on peaceful uses of nuclear energy and fears of a nuclear holocaust.

The Mediation of Technology and Gender: Metropolis, Nazism, Modernism

Abstract: If, as many have claimed, aesthetic modernism can be defined by its relation to technology, perhaps no other single work condenses so many aspects of this relationship as Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926). There, modernism's fears of and fascination with technology are given overdetermined representation. Andreas Huyssen, in one of the more perceptive analyses of Metropolis, has argued that the film is an attempt to resolve "two diametrically opposed views of technology": an "expressionist view" that emphasizes "technology's oppressive and destructive potential" and the "unbridled confidence in technical progress and social engineering" oft "the technology cult of the Neue Sachlichkeit."I Huyssen has elsewhere suggested that the whole of the twentieth-century avant-garde may be defined by its experience positive or negative of technology.2 Yet, viewing Metropolis, much less modernism in general, in terms of a dialectic between utopian and dystopian views of technology may obscure as much as it clarifies. It makes little sense, for example, to categorize Italian futurists, Soviet constructivists, and architects of the German Werkbund simply in terms of their technological utopianism. Although these movements do tend to see technology

Teoria Crítica e Literatura: a distopia como ferramenta de análise radical da modernidade

Abstract: This paper seeks to argue that the literary genre known as dystopia is configured, from the perspective of critical theory of society, as an analysis tool of radical modernity. Therefore, there is a brief description of what would such a literary genre, as well as elect three dystopian works to bring proof that argument. Such works are: 1984, Orwell, Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury, and Brave New World, Huxley. Highlighting some of these characteristics, it is possible to shed light on the distinctive features of our contemporary.

American Science Fiction TV: Star Trek, Stargate, and Beyond

Abstract: American Science Fiction TV: Star Trek, Stargate, and Beyond. By Jan Johnson-Smith. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2005. Pp. 308, acknowledgments, introduction, notes, bibliography, index, illustrations. Jan Johnson-Smith, a senior lecturer in film and television theory at Bournemouth University's media school in the United Kingdom, has provided a much-needed analysis of science fiction television through an examination of the narrative and visual patterns that the genre has produced. Science fiction television has spawned legions of fans and clearly occupies an important niche in American culture, and Johnson-Smith takes on the ambitious task of sorting through the multitudes of applicable media content in American Science Fiction TV: Star Trek, Stargate, and Beyond. Johnson-Smith opens the book by introducing the science fiction genre to the reader and simultaneously acknowledging that defining the genre has been a contentious matter amongst "sf" fans. In fact, this very debate will likely determine many readers' sentiments about the book. Johnson-Smith is cautious to group shows such as The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, and The Outer Limits with mainstream science fiction television. Instead, she places much greater focus on shows like Star Trek, Stargate SG-1, Babylon 5, Space: Above and Beyond, and Farscape, a choice which may alienate fans (no pun intended) and scholars looking for a broad overview of the genre. The opening chapter does a fine job of exploring the historical context of science fiction, paying homage to speculative literature and science fiction's role in the history of developing ideas about the future. In her discussion of metalinguistics and neologisms, Johnson-Smith notes that different approaches to science fiction such as satire and parody, as evidenced in films like Brazil (1985) and Galaxy Quest (1999), respectively, "offer comment upon our own world through metaphor and extrapolation, with utopian or dystopian visions of alternative realities" (30). The book caters to the interests of both fans and scholars alike, which is problematic at times. In Chapter Two, "Histories: The American West, Television, and Televisuality," Johnson-Smith provides a lengthy discussion of how science fiction television redeveloped themes from Westerns to create "a new frontier." This is not a new development for scholars, but Johnson-Smith's cumulative approach will appeal to lay readers. Indeed, Johnson-Smith continually revisits this theme throughout the book, arguing that the Western mythos stems from an innate desire for exploration, thereby contributing to the allure of science fiction television. The book often reads like a dissertation, which it was in a previous incarnation, and those familiar with the correlations between the Western and other genres may feel quite distracted by Johnson-Smith's overzealous "name-dropping" of films and television shows to contextualize her arguments. Clearly, the highlight of American Science Fiction TV is Johnson-Smith's coverage of Star Trek, perhaps the most important and influential American science fiction program of all time. Johnson-Smith discusses the representations of gender and race in the series, which again is not exactly groundbreaking, but is nevertheless enjoyable to read and yields some interesting observations. For example, Johnson-Smith points out that Star Trek has been considered by some critics to be "naive" and even racist for envisioning a white, American-led future. Intriguingly, she also notes that the infamous interracial kiss between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols on the original Star Trek series, while brave, occurred while both characters were forcibly under the control of an alien power, "so it can be viewed alternatively as a clever plot device with positive intentions, or as a less constructive expression of inter-racial [sic] relations, and a myriad of positions in between" (82). …