Texte remanié de: Diss.--Pädag. Hochsch.--Dresden--Universität, 1993. Titre de soutenance : Science-fiction-Elemente in der Kinderliteratur der DDR in den siebziger und achtziger Jahren. / Bibliogr. p. 111-134.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Includes bibliographical references (p. 212-221).

This thesis provides a comprehensive critical analysis of Iain M. Banks’s Culture series, ten science fiction (SF) texts concerned with the Culture, Banks’s vision of his “personal utopia”: Consider Phlebas (1987), The Player of Games (1988), Use of Weapons (1990), The State of the Art (1991), Excession (1996), Inversions (1998), Look to Windward (2000), Matter (2008), Surface Detail (2010), and The Hydrogen Sonata (2012). I place this series within the context of the space opera sub-genre, and – drawing upon a critical toolkit developed by Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. in The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction (2008) – I explore the extent to which Banks achieved his goal of reshaping the sub-genre for the political Left. Due to the complexity and ambiguity of Banks’s creation, this research addresses the central question: what is the Culture? I argue that the Culture constitutes a utopian variation of Csicsery- Ronay’s technologiade, challenging the notion that Banks’s creation represents an empire or imperialist project. I consider the Culture as a culture: peoples linked by a shared value system and way of life; a method of development and nurturing; a system of utopian processes. Drawing on Archaeologies of the Future (2005), I argue that the Culture series demonstrates Frederic Jameson’s notion of ‘thinking the break’, with Banks’s writing constantly affirming the possibility and desirability of radical sociopolitical change. I identify six key radical moves away from the nonutopian present – characterised as shifts, breaks or apocalypses – which form the Culture’s utopianprocesses, with each chapter exploring the extent to which the Culture has overcome a fundamental obstacle impeding the path to utopia. The Culture has moved beyond material scarcity, alienated labour, capitalism, and the class-system, maintaining State functions. Culture citizens are notable for significantly adapting their own bodies and minds – controlling senescence and ultimately death itself – but motivated by the desire to improve rather than transcend their humanity. The Culture has achieved a form of equality between the sexes and removed patriarchy, yet is still coping with the implications of sex and gender fluidity. Despite relying upon seemingly quasi-religious innovations, the Culture is entirely secular, having moved beyond any kind of religious or faith-based worldview. Finally, the Culture is perhaps an example of what Jameson has called ‘the death of art’, as creative and artistic practice seems to have become part of everyday life, which contrasts with the numerous artworks produced on its margins.

As science races to keep up with science fiction, many scientists are beginning to believe that the next step in human evolution will be a combination of human and machine and look a lot like something out of Star Trek. The constant pursuit of perfection is a part of the human condition, but if we begin to stretch beyond the natural human form can we still consider ourselves human? Transhumanism and posthumanism are only theories for now, but they are theories that threaten to permanently displace the human race, possibly pushing it into extinction. This thesis will look at the theories of transhumanism and posthumanism through the lens of science fiction and ask the question of whether or not technology holds the key to humanities next evolutionary step or its demise.

Orientador: Aparecido Donizete Rossi / Banca: Alexander Meireles da Silva / Banca: Karin Volobuef / Resumo: Abordar a ciência e as mudanças científico-tecnológicas na literatura é uma prática que acompanha a humanidade e sua evolução desde o princípio. Dessa prática surge a Ficção Científica (FC), um dos muitos ramos da rica literatura gótica. Na nossa sociedade, que faz uso constante e cada vez maior da tecnologia e seus gadgets, porém, muitas das mudanças imaginadas pelos autores de FC, sendo elas fantásticas ou verossímeis, já foram alcançadas e, desta maneira, o gênero foi compelido a buscar novos temas e abordagens. À beira de uma revolução na FC, o autor inglês Neil Gaiman cria em sua obra Deuses Americanos (2001) um novo tipo de ciência: uma ciência sacralizada, "deusificada". No romance, deuses de culturas e religiões antigas devem conviver com e sobreviver a novos deuses emergentes - os deuses da mídia, dos carros e dos computadores, entre outros. As duas gerações de deuses disputam a fé da humanidade, o que os alimenta, e nesse processo, muitos desses deuses evoluem, involuem ou até mesmo morrem. A FC criada por Neil Gaiman retorna ao mito para explicar o desconhecido e torna-se então uma espécie de FC "reversa". Este trabalho propõe um debate sobre essa nova face da FC, com base nas teorias de Fred Botting, Mircea Elíade, Robert Adams e Sigmund Freud, entre outros. / Abstract: Approaching science and technoscientific changes in literature has been done by humanity since the beginning and has evolved alongside with history. From this practice derives Science Fiction (SF), one of the many branches of gothic literature. In our society, which makes constant and increasing use of technology and gadgets, however, many changes imagined by SF authors, either fantastic or verisimilar, have already been reached and so the literary genre was compelled to search for new themes and approaches. On the brink of a revolution in SF, British author Neil Gaiman creates in his masterpiece, American Gods (2001), a new type of science: a sacralized and "godfied" science. In the novel, gods from different cultures and ancient religions must live with and survive to new emergent gods - gods of the media, of cars and computers, among others. Both generations of gods fight over what feeds them - the faith of mankind - and during this process, many of these gods evolve, devolve or even perish. The SF created by Neil Gaiman returns to the myth as an explanation to the unknown and becomes then a kind of "reverse" SF. This work proposes a debate on this new face of SF, based on the theories of Fred Botting, Mircea Elíade, Robert Adams and Sigmund Freud, among others. / Mestre

This dissertation proposes the use of fiction as models to enhance the process of impact assessment (IA) and to improve the quality of IA reports. It demonstrates that works of extrapolative fiction (EF), a subset of science fiction, raise issues and clarify concerns not currently included in the IA process, suggesting the potential for improving the relevance of IA results for decisionmakers. The dissertation also demonstrates that EF stories can enhance the presentation of IA results, making those results more readable. Through literature review and content analysis, the current IA process is shown to lead to results lacking in specific content areas (e.g., effects on emotional well-being and community cohesiveness) necessary for their utility to decisionmakers. The body of literature here called extrapolative fiction is then shown to include many content areas missing in existing assessments. Two alternatives for an IA process that could incorporate extrapolative fiction are presented and discussed by means of examples. The first includes existing EF stories as a part of or an appendage to an IA report. The example is a preliminary combining of published EF stories with an IA report concerning life-extending technologies. The second includes the use of existing EF stories in the assessment process through inclusion of an EF-oriented reader on the IA team. The example is a case description of an IA process regarding the commercialization of guayule as a source of natural rubber, a process in which the author incorporated EF methods. Severa other results emerged from this research: (a) an initial statement of objectives for a unified field of impact assessment (recently emerging as an amalgamation of technology assessment, environmental impact statements and social impact assessment); (b) a working definition for an emerging subgenre of science fiction here called extrapolative fiction; (c) a topical bibliography of some hundred EF stories. These results extend the current understanding of the field of impact assessment and the emerging genre of extrapolative fiction and should be useful to both the impact assessment and science fiction criticism communities.

Ma thèse étudie la représentation du rapport entre l'humain et la Nature dans trois romans de science-fiction québécoise d'Élisabeth Vonarburg, soit Le Silence de la Cité, Chroniques du Pays des Mères et Les Rêves de la Mer. En utilisant des concepts écocritiques, j'examine comment les récits de science-fiction utopique imaginent et mettent en récit la relation entre l'humain et la Nature. Souvent, ce rapport est pensé en fonction d'une relation oppositionnelle entre l'humain et la Nature dans laquelle l'humain dominerait et exploiterait la Nature, plutôt que comme un univers où l'humain et le monde naturel seraient en continuité. J'explore trois types de rapports à la Nature, soit la perspective dualiste qui met l'accent sur la supériorité de l'humain, associé à la civilisation et la rationalité, et l'infériorité de la Nature, associée au sauvage et à l'irrationnel, la perspective dite harmonieuse, qui propose que la Nature est supérieure à l'humain et l'idée d'un continuum qui tient compte des différences qui existent entre les humains et l'environnement naturel, tout en résistant à la hiérarchisation de ces différences. L'étude du rapport entre l'humain et la Nature va de pair avec celle des relations hommes-femmes. Aussi, mon étude porte également sur les caractéristiques « naturelles » qui sont attribuées à la femme, qui justifient son infériorisation à l'homme. J'analyse donc, en plus de la description des lieux naturels ou construits, la représentation des personnages humains ainsi que le rapport qu'ils entretiennent avec leur environnement. Dans un premier temps, je répertorie les diverses catégories de personnages, les humains, les personnages humanoïdes (cyborgs et extraterrestres) et les robots et présente leurs qualités respectives, ainsi que les différents espaces qui sont représentés dans chaque œuvre. Dans un deuxième temps, j'analyse les différentes idéologies qui fondent le type de rapport à la Nature que les personnages privilégient. Cette étude m'amène à considérer comment les utopies mises en scène critiquent la conception dualiste et la conception harmonieuse des rapports à la Nature afin de promouvoir l'idée d'un rapport de continuité.

No description available.

This story began with a question and grew in the answering, as did I, until it became a story more interested in the quest and the asking of the question than in the resolution or answer. That is not to say that this novel does not have a fairly standard beginning, middle and end. Instead, the uniqueness, if there is such a thing, emerges in the content of these parts, in the genres I used, and in the consistent voice of the central character that continually returns to the question. I wondered, (to use a phrase often times overused by Jenson, the main character in the most recent version of this story), why I was here. More precisely, I wondered what a person propelled by this question and the failure to find an answer, or at least an answer that provided any semblance of hope or self-confidence, would do when put into extraordinary circumstances. At what point would he abandon the question, or in this story, at what point would Jenson ultimately give up on his quest? Also, as a writer acutely aware that I write for a reader and not just for myself, I wondered at what point a reader would abandon a character like Jenson or a quest that didn’t have a clear end. These two themes—the questioning quest and the constant slipping away of answers—as well as my desire to create a character and world that were both familiar and yet epic in scale, forced me to write this story. What emerged has been a labor of love and obsession that shows the first person story of a character’s struggle to find his “belong’in place in the world.” This familiar motivation is overshadowed, though, by a more pressing goal—the first person account of a, possibly, unreliable narrator, failed parent and husband who must team up with his estranged wife to save his son. As Tolkien once said, “an author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence inadequate and ambiguous.” What I can say, though, with absolute certainty is that this latest version of the story is a result of maturity and constant curiosity. As I have grown older the central character in the story has changed from a teenage boy fighting ogres and saving damsels in distress to a middle-aged man with phobias and faults battling some of the everyday problems we all encounter—how to deal with fear and feelings of inadequacy and how to rekindle love or talk with a girl. Of course, he still has to battle a strange being from a different dimension and figure out how to fix a secret, illegal scientific experiment so that he can save his son, who has been put into a coma because he has volunteered for an experiment that sent him to a different dimension. But the science and mystery and extraordinary circumstances don’t, or at least don’t always, overshadow the heart of the story. This is a man on a quest to find answers that may not exist, and the questioning quest will, undoubtedly, take him to the next dimension where he will have to find his son, figure out how to come back home, and perhaps…battle God.

No description available.