Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions

Fredric Jameson

Verso, 2005 - Philosophy - 431 pages

The notion of the utopian is also explored through representations of otherness, alien life and alien worlds in science fiction, including LeGuin, Lem, Stapledon and the Strugatskys, and concludes with an examination of the opposing positions on utopia and an assessment of its political value and function today. The volume also includes a collection of Jameson's essential essays on science fiction, including studies of Philip K. Dick, Ursula LeGuin, William Gibson, Brian Aldiss and Kim Stanley Robinson.

Contents

• Varieties of the Utopian: 1
• The Utopian Enclave: 10
• Morus The Generic Window: 22
• Utopian Science versus Utopian Ideology: 42
• The Great Schism: 57
• How to Fulfill a Wish: 72
• The Barrier of Time: 85
• The Unknowability Thesis: 107
• The Alien Body: 119
• Utopia and its Antinomies: 142
• Synthesis Irony Neutralization and the Moment of Truth: 170
• Journey into Fear: 182
• The Future as Disruption: 211
• AS FAR AS THOUGHT CAN REACH: 235
• Fourier or Ontology and Utopia: 237
• Generic Discontinuities in SF Brian Aldiss Starship: 254
• World Reduction in Le Guin: 267
• Progress versus Utopia or Can We Imagine the Future?: 281
• Science Fiction as a Spatial Genre Vonda Mclntyres The Exile Waiting: 296
• The Space of Science Fiction Narrative in Van Vogt: 314
• Longevity as Class Struggle: 328
• Philip K Dick In Memoriam: 345
• After Armageddon Character Systems in Dr Bloodmoney: 349
• History and Salvation in Philip K Dick: 363
• Fear and Loathing in Globalization: 384
• If I Can Find One Good City I Will Spare the Man Realism and Utopia in Kim Stanley Robinsons Mars Trilogy: 393
• Acknowledgments: 417
• Index: 419

About the author

Fredric Jameson is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University. The author of numerous books, he has over the last three decades developed a richly nuanced vision of Western culture's relation to political economy. He was a recipient of the 2008 Holberg International Memorial Prize. He is the author of many books, including "Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism," "The Cultural Turn, A Singular Modernity," "The Modernist Papers," "Archaeologies of the Future," "Brecht and Method, Ideologies of Theory, ""Valences of the Dialectic," "The Hegel Variations" and "Representing Capital."

Bibliographic information

• Title: Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions; Cultural studies
• Author: Fredric Jameson
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Verso, 2005
• ISBN: 1844670333, 9781844670338
• Length: 431 pages
• Subjects: Philosophy / History & Surveys / Modern