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Article
Science Fiction and Utopia in the Anthropocene
American Literature
  • Gerry Canavan, Marquette University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-1-2021
Publisher
Duke University Press
Original Item ID
DOI: 10.1215/00029831-9003582
Abstract

This article takes up science-fictional visions of the future against the “deep time” of the Anthropocene in order to explore the possibilities for utopia that remain in an era that only seems capable of producing necrofuturological dread. The piece surveys a wide range of contemporary literature and film; the key prose authors discussed are Octavia E. Butler, Margaret Atwood, Ernest Callenbach, and Kim Stanley Robinson. These texts are used to identify patterns of thought that have become habitual in the cultural moment of the Anthropocene, and they are explored as critiques of, alternatives to, and lines of flight away from its more pessimistic ideological formations.

Comments

Accepted version. American Literature, Vol. 93, No. 2 (June 2021): 255-282. DOI. © 2021 Duke University Press. Used with permission.

Citation Information
Gerry Canavan. "Science Fiction and Utopia in the Anthropocene" American Literature (2021) ISSN: 0002-9313
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/gerry-canavan/78/