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Ce mémoire porte sur la figure de l'intelligence artificielle, en ce qu'elle permet d'incarner les craintes et les angoisses mises au jour par la critique sociale véhiculée dans les fictions dystopiques. Il analyse les manifestations d'êtres-machines et de structures de contrôle social créés par l'humanité, et dont la conduite témoigne d'une forme d'intelligence; il montre ainsi en quoi certaines structures sociales se calquent sur les machines pensantes imaginées. S'appuyant sur une approche pluridisciplinaire qui fait notamment appel aux domaines de la cybernétique, de la biologie et de la science politique, cette étude de la dystopie se concentre plus particulièrement sur le corpus littéraire suivant: Nineteen Eighty-Four, de George Orwell, Le Dépeupleur, de Samuel Beckett, et Neuromancer, de William Gibson. Prenant ses racines dans l'utopie, la dystopie a été façonnée au XIXe siècle à partir des craintes et des désillusions liées à une industrialisation qui modifiait radicalement le mode de vie humain. Dans ce type de fictions, les rapports de force entre l'humanité et ses outils -ses créations -basculent, car la technique y permet la transmission d'un ascendant sur l'être humain. Cette emprise se voit exacerbée par la machine pensante, dont l'accession à la vie autorise un niveau d'indépendance et d'initiative inaccessible à ses prédécesseurs. Ce faisant, l'intelligence artificielle permet d'imager le déplacement de point focal qui s'opère quand l'outil devient une fin en soi, de même qu'elle illustre les potentialités asservissantes d'une utilisation inconsidérée de la technique. À l'image de l'être artificiel, les structures machiniques de la dystopie acquièrent suffisamment d'autonomie pour pouvoir, elles aussi, attenter à la souveraineté de l'individu. L'humain, noyé au sein de ces structures qui le submergent, n'est alors plus qu'une composante insignifiante dont la spécificité se fait systématiquement gommer par la machine sociale. En définitive, qu'il s'agisse d'un être ou d'un système, la figure de l'intelligence artificielle apparaît comme un sujet agissant, qui incarne la propension de la dystopie à réduire l'individu à l'état de pion. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Dystopie, Intelligence artificielle, Cybernétique, George Orwell, Samuel Beckett, William Gibson.

Gestalt psychologists Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler argue that human perception relies on a form, or gestalt, into which perceptions are assimilated. Gestalt theory has been applied to the visual arts by Rudolf Arnheim and to literature by Wolfgang Iser. My original contribution to knowledge is to use gestalt theory to perform literary criticism, an approach that highlights the importance of perception in William Gibson's novels and the impact of this emphasis on posthumanism and science fiction studies. Science fiction addresses the problem of difference and the relationship between self and other. Gestalt literary criticism takes perception as the interface between the self and the other, the human and the inhuman. Gibson's work is of particular interest as his early novels are representative of 1980s cyberpunk while his later novels push the boundaries of science fiction through their contemporary settings. By engaging with Gibson the thesis makes its contribution to contemporary science fiction criticism explicit. In Gibson's Sprawl trilogy autopoiesis defines life and consciousness, elevating the importance of perception (Chapter I). The Bridge trilogy uses the metaphor of chaos theory to examine dialectic tensions, such as the tension between space and cyberspace (Chapter II). Faulty pattern recognition is a key theme in Gibson's post-9/11 work as gestalt perception allows and limits knowledge (Chapter III). Chapter IV explains how the gestalt in psychoanalysis creates a fragmented subject in Spook Country (2007). Finally, the gestalt appears as a parallax view, a view that oscillates between the world we experience and the world as represented in the text (Chapter V). I conclude that gestalt literary criticism offers an exciting new reading of Gibson's work that recognises its engagement with visual culture and cyberpunk as a whole.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Cyberpunk literature explores the effects that developments in technology will have on the lives of individuals in the future. Technology is seen as having the potential to be of benefit to society, but it is also seen as a dangerous tool that can be used to severely limit humanity's freedom. Most of the characters in the texts I examine wish to perpetuate the boundaries that contain them in a desperate search for stability. Only a few individuals manage to move beyond the boundaries created by multinational corporations that use technology, drugs or religion for their own benefit. This thesis will provide a definition of cyberpunk and explore its development from science fiction and postmodern writing. The influence of postmodern thinking on cyberpunk literature can be seen in its move from stability to fluidity, and in its insistence on the impossibility of creating fixed boundaries. Cyberpunk does not see the future of humanity as stable, and argues that it will be necessary for humanity to move beyond the boundaries that contain it. The novels I discuss present different views concerning the nature of humanity's merging with technology. One view is that humanity is moving towards a posthuman future, while some argue that humanity is not discarded, but that these characters have merely evolved to the next step in the natural development of humankind. Both these views deal with constant change, a notion advocated by both postmodernism and cyberpunk. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: "Cyberpunk" literatuur ondersoek die uitwerking wat tegnologiese ontwikkeling in die toekoms op die lewens van individue sal hê. Tegnologie word gesien as tot moontlike voordeel vir die samelewing, maar dit kan ook 'n gevaarlike wapen wees wat gebruik kan word om die mens se vryheid in te perk. Die meerderheid van die karakters in die romans wat ek bespreek verkies om die grense wat hulle inperk te handhaaf in 'n desperate strewe na stabiliteit. Slegs 'n paar individue kry dit wel reg om verby die grense te breek wat deur multinasionale organisasies geskep word vir hul eie gewin. In hierdie tesis kyk ek na 'n definisie van "cyberpunk" en ek ondersoek die invloed van wetenskapsfiksie en postmodernisme op die ontwikkeling van die beweging. Die invloed van postmodernistiese denke kan gesien word in "cyberpunk" se fokus op veranderlikheid eerder as stabiliteit. "Cyberpunk" sien nie die toekoms van die mens as stabiel nie, en die argument is dat dit nodig is vir die mens om verby die grense te beweeg wat vryheid inperk. Die romans wat ek bespreek bevat verskillende sieninge oor die tipe samesmelting wat die mens en tegnologie sal hê. Sommige voel dat die kategorie "mens" permanent agterlaat gaan word, terwyl ander argumenteer dat individue slegs sal ontwikkel tot die volgende stap in die natuurlike ontwikkeling van die mens. Voortdurende verandering is die fokus van beide hierdie standpunte, en dit is ook die belangrikste fokus van beide "cyberpunk" en postmodernisme.

Science fiction identifies three characteristics as definitive of and essential to humanity: 1) sentience or self-awareness, 2) emotions, and 3) most importantly, the capacity for sociability. Through the vital possession of these three traits any entity can come to be called human. In the first chapter, I examine Cordwainer Smith's "Scanners Live in Vain" and Samuel R. Delany's "Aye and Gomorrah...," two stories in which human subjects become Other than human. In the second chapter, I explore the prospect of creatures, not biologically human who gain human status through an analysis of Smith's "The Dead Lady of Clown Town" and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? In the third chapter, I investigate the uniquely science fictional notion that "humanity" does not require biology through a comparison of H.G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau and William Gibson's Idoru. / by Charles Barry Herzek. / Works Cited (p. 54), reflected in the Table of Contents, lacking from the University Library's copy. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references based on the footnotes on pages 51-53. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, FL : 2008 Mode of access: World Wide Web.