Resources for a Journey of Hope: Raymond Williams on Utopia and Science Fiction

Milner, Andrew

doi:10.1177/1749975516631584

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…As SF film has developed for decades, the theme of dystopia has gained its central significance (Milner, 2016). There are four characteristic types of modern forms of utopia and dystopia: the paradise or hell, the positively or negatively externally-altered world, the positive or negative willed transformation and the positive or negative technological transformation.…”

Section: Human Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

How Cyborgs Define Themselves: On Ghost in the Shell

Zhou¹,

J²

2018

dtssehs

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Abstract. This article explores the influence of the interrelated relationship between machine and mankind on human subjectivity and the function of dystopian setting in the Japanese anime feature Ghost in the Shell (1995). The film set in the year of 2029 in Japan, and at that time human can "augmented" their physical body including their brains by engaging cybernetic parts. The heroine Motoko Kusanagi, as a cyborg with perfect physical function, starts to think about how to define herself when she is involved in a series of events concerning cyborgs. The narrative explores the subjectivity of cyborgs and how the intimate relationship with technology influence human self-awareness. The article seeks to explore the relationship between the physical body and human subjectivity and demonstrate the profound effect of the interrelated connection between machine and human on people's self-cognition. In the use of textual analysis, the article attempts to uncover the meaning behind the identity crisis of Kusanagi in the dystopian society set in this science fiction film (SF film). In the film, although the technology confuses human on defining themselves, Kusanagi proves fully capable of cognizing herself at the end of the film. And the especial use of dystopia setting magnifies the identity crisis and enhance the desire to fathom self-identity.

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Section: Human Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

How Cyborgs Define Themselves: On Ghost in the Shell

Zhou¹,

J²

2018

dtssehs

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“…Furthermore, a number of prominent twentieth-century sociologists have turned to speculative fiction. WEB Du Bois’s ‘The Comet’ (1920) and Raymond Williams’s The Volunteers (1978) and The Fight for Manod (1979) are particularly interesting examples here (Milner, 2016; Zamalin, 2019). The literary utopia is one of the forms through which the impulse toward a better world is expressed in sociological terms.…”

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confidence: 99%

Looking laterally: The literary utopia and the task of critical social theory

Davidson

2020

Current Sociology

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This article is focused on exploring the value of literary utopias for social theory. The literary utopia, at first glance, appears irrelevant to sociology, its imaginative descriptions of social worlds both radically different and substantively better than our own seeming to skip over the central task of sociological enquiry: the diagnosis of society as it exists. In this article, the author aims to demonstrate that this is mistaken: the tradition of literary utopianising has much to contribute to sociology. Utopian authors, from Thomas More in the sixteenth century to Ursula K Le Guin in the twentieth, have developed a sophisticated and original mode of social critique. The utopian text, in bricolating and remixing aspects of actually existing society, creates something both new and astonishing. In looking laterally at the world from the perspective of utopia, consciousness of the contradictions and repressions of the dominant relations in contemporary society is sharpened. The literary utopia achieves this in two ways: first, it demonstrates how the not yet realised norms of the author’s society can be fulfilled and, second, it discloses the hidden possibilities for new ways of living that are present but denied in the social world.

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Resources for a Journey of Hope: Raymond Williams on Utopia and Science Fiction

Cited by 2 publications

References 12 publications

How Cyborgs Define Themselves: On Ghost in the Shell

How Cyborgs Define Themselves: On Ghost in the Shell

Looking laterally: The literary utopia and the task of critical social theory

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