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CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by UEF Electronic Publications “What hope for these people?” Utopian Ideologies in Iain M. Banks’s “The State of the Art” Samu-Veikka Häkkinen 180818 Pro Gradu Thesis English Language and Culture School of Humanities University of Eastern Finland May 2015 ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO – UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND Tiedekunta – Faculty Osasto – School Philosophical Faculty School of Humanities Tekijät – Author Samu-Veikka Häkkinen Työn nimi – Title ”What hope for these people?”: Utopian Ideologies in Iain M. Banks’s “The State of The Art” Pääaine – Main subject Työn laji – Level Päivämäärä – Sivumäärä – Number of Date pages English Language and Culture Pro gradu -tutkielma x 12.5.2015 73 Sivuainetutkielma Kandidaatin tutkielma Aineopintojen tutkielma Tiivistelmä – Abstract This thesis examines how the genres of utopia and dystopia contribute to our understanding of the Iain M. Banks science fiction novella “The State of The Art”. Furthermore, I study how the ideologies of the two societies that incorporate these genres, namely the Culture and the Earth, are set to oppose each other. Because of this, the nominally realistic Earth gains dystopic characteristics, and can thus be studied as being part of that genre. I also examine what kind of authorial ideology there is to be found in the text by comparing the two ideological societies and their depictions with each other. To do this I examine the genres of utopia and dystopia, as well as that of science fiction, which connects with the two because of its distancing effects of estrangement and cognition, in order to analyze how well the societies depicted can be said to accede to the demands of the genre. For the theory of ideology I initially provide a general view on what the term means, and then study the concepts of hegemony and interpellation. I also study how genre fiction as popular fiction is seen in the theory of ideology, as well as literature’s value to it as a whole. In the analysis I examine the utopian Culture, and argue that it is depicted as a critical utopia due to its imperfect nature. I furthermore state that the utopia’s ideology is very similar to that of Enlightenment liberalism, encompassing such values as liberty, equality and reason. The dystopia of the Earth then has the opposing values of restrictedness, inequality and misinformation/stupidity, which together with the inherent violence of the humans’ make up the human condition, which is equated with the ideology of capitalism. In comparing these ideologies, I argue that due to the concreteness of the dystopia as opposed by the fictitious utopia, the dystopia is victorious and thus the authorial ideology of the novella. In sum, the genres of utopia and dystopia attain ideological content in the novella, and ultimately the ideological pessimism of dystopia is the stronger of the two ideologies examined. Avainsanat – Keywords Iain M. Banks, The State of The Art, genre, utopia, dystopia, science fiction, ideology, hegemony, interpellation. ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO – UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND Tiedekunta – Faculty Filosofinen Osasto – School Humanistinen osasto tiedekunta Tekijät – Author Samu-Veikka Häkkinen Työn nimi – Title ”What hope for these people?”: Utopian Ideologies in Iain M. Banks’s “The State of The Art” Pääaine – Main subject Työn laji – Level Päivämäärä – Sivumäärä – Number of Date pages Englannin Kieli ja Kultuuri Pro gradu -tutkielma x 12.5.2015 73 Sivuainetutkielma Kandidaatin tutkielma Aineopintojen tutkielma Tiivistelmä – Abstract Tämän pro gradu –tutkielman tarkoitus on tutkia utopian ja dystopian genrejä Iain M. Banksin pienoisromaanissa ”The State of The Art”. Nämä kaksi genreä esiintyvät kahdessa yhteiskunnassa, fiktionaalisessa Kulttuurissa ja Maassa, joiden ideologiat esitetään toisilleen vastakkaisina. Tämän vastakkainasettelun vaikutuksesta varsin realistisesti kuvattu Maa näyttäytyy dystooppisena, ja siksi sitä voidaan analysoida sellaisena. Teosta analysoidaan myös tekijän ideologian näkökulmasta vertaamalla näitä kahta yhteiskuntaa toisiinsa. Tutkimuksen teoreettisena perustana toimii dystopian ja utopian sekä vähemmässä määrin tieteiskirjallisuuden genrejen tutkimus, joita kaikkia yhdistää niiden tapa vieraannuttaa lukija tietoisesti todellisuudesta. Toisena teorian haarana tutkimuksessa käsitellään ideologiaa sekä yleiseltä kannalta, että myös tarkemmin hegemonian ja interpellaation käsitteiden kautta. Myös genrefiktio populaarikulttuurin osana ja sen siteet ideologiaan esitellään. Analyysissä tutkitaan Kulttuuria utopiana ja tarkemmin kriittisenä utopiana, sekä sen ideologiaa, jossa näyttäytyvät valistuksen ajan liberalismin arvot, eli vapaus, tasa-arvo ja järjellinen ajattelu. Toisaalta analysoidaan Maata dystopiana, jossa vaikuttavat vastakkaiset arvot, jotka katThe State of The Artan osaksi kapitalismin ideologiaa ja ihmisluonnetta. Verratessa näitä kahta fiktionaalinen utopia näyttää häviävän konkreettisen dystopian ideologialle, joka näyttäytyy lopulta novellin tekijän ideologiana. Tutkimuksen keskeisen tuloksen mukaan verratessa utopian ja dystopian genrejen ideologioita, dystopian ideologinen pessimismi on teoksen pääasiallinen ideologia. Avainsanat – Keywords Iain M. Banks, The State of The Art, genre, utopia, dystopia, tieteiskirjallisuus, ideologia, hegemonia, interpellaatio. Introduction 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Aims and Structure ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2. The Novella and Its Context .................................................................................................................. 3 2. Utopian Genre ............................................................................................................................................ 10 2.1 Science Fiction and Cognitive Estrangement ........................................................................................ 10 2.2. Utopia ................................................................................................................................................... 14 2.3. Dystopia ............................................................................................................................................... 21 3. Ideology ...................................................................................................................................................... 28 3.1 Two Central Lineages ........................................................................................................................... 29 3.2. Gramsci and Hegemony ....................................................................................................................... 33 3.3. Althusser and Interpellation ................................................................................................................. 36 3.4. Ideology and Literature ........................................................................................................................ 38 4. Utopian Genre and Ideology in “The State of The Art” ........................................................................ 43 4.1. The Culture as an Ideological Utopia ................................................................................................... 43 4.2. The Earth as a Capitalist Dystopia ....................................................................................................... 60 4.3. Utopia versus Dystopia: The Authorial Ideology ................................................................................. 75 5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 78 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................................... 81 1 1. Introduction 1.1. Aims and Structure Should humans as a species strive for a better future? The expected answer for the question is naturally yes, but the problem arises when the nature of that better future must be decided. There are, therefore, people who wish to present their ideal future for the others in a way to make them accept it as well. In this thesis I will examine this issue through Iain M. Banks's novella "The State of the Art" (1991). The story runs for a hundred pages and deals with an observation mission launched by the utopian society of the Culture on the Earth in 1978. In the story the inhabitants of the Earth do not appear in any meaningful role, and Banks represents the ruling ideology of the time through the view of the aliens, contrasting it with the ideology of the utopian Culture. In this thesis I will examine what kind of ideologies these two societies seem to hold to. I will argue that through the ideological depiction of Earth society as bordering on dystopic, the Culture is given as the desirable alternative in the hope that this will encourage the reader to work towards that future. As the society of the Culture is covered in the novella somewhat haphazardly, I will use Banks's short explanatory work A Few Notes on the Culture (1994) as an additional source of information. I feel this is a justifiable decision, as some of the later publications of the collection contain it, and
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