Science Fiction Film and Late Modernity an Inquiry Into Late Modern Predicaments As Expressed Through the Novum
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Science Fiction Film and Late Modernity An Inquiry into Late Modern Predicaments as Expressed through the Novum. Word count: 17.554 Ditte Claus Student number: 01200408 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Bart Keunen A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of “Master in de Vergelijkende Moderne Letterkunde” Academic year: 2017 – 2018 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Bart Keunen for his guidance, my parents and siblings for comforting me with food, my friends for comforting me with kindness, my cat for being there, Lennart for his inexhaustible zeal, Maxim for his unparalleled ardor, Tine for her scrupulous eye, and Marie, for everything. 2 Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ 2 Contents ................................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 4 a. Theoretical framework ................................................................................................... 6 1. Science fiction ............................................................................................................ 6 1.1. Cognitive estrangement....................................................................................... 8 1.2. Science fiction and society ................................................................................ 10 1.3. Novum .............................................................................................................. 11 1.4. Science fiction film ........................................................................................... 12 2. Modernity ................................................................................................................. 16 2.1. Individualization and alternative socialization ................................................... 17 2.2. Mediating experience of a media culture ........................................................... 19 2.3. Capitalism, technology and globalization .......................................................... 20 3. Modernity and science fiction ................................................................................... 23 b. Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 26 1. Experience economy and identity extraction ............................................................. 27 2. Biopolitics and the Posthuman .................................................................................. 35 3. Parallel worlds, alternative universes and parallel identity ........................................ 41 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 45 Works Cited ......................................................................................................................... 47 Appendix ............................................................................................................................. 50 3 Introduction “I want to believe.” – The X-Files Central to this thesis is the cinematic genre of science fiction and its ability to establish narratives that interact with and reflect on the late modern human condition through the use of the novum. The term novum is borrowed from the acclaimed critic in the field of literary science fiction Darko Suvin’s theory on science fiction, in which he considered it as the defining element of the genre. It is a new thing or concept that estranges, is scientifically plausible and logically justified by the fictional world. The novum can appear in various forms, ranging from alien life-forms to time travel. These different kinds of nova will be analyzed as an expression of the risks of modernity and the problems we encounter as subjects of late modernity. This way, the novum serves as a mirror for our anxieties, neuroses, wishes and desires, and the way the modern subject engages with the fast pace of modern society. The science fiction genre, in its creation of alternative worlds, interacts with both modern technology and the late modern condition and therefore tells us something about our modern western society. It is through the novum that science fiction films express how we deal with technological innovation and the sociologic, economic, and political change that late modernity entails, and the problems that it causes. The novum often functions as a focal point to discuss wider socio-political issues than the concrete example or situation it represents. In this thesis I will explore how recent science fiction narratives are shaped by their late modern socio-cultural context, focusing especially on the role of the novum. I will examine how the late modern condition permeates through the themes, characters and overarching tone of recent science fiction films. The first chapter of the theoretical framework offers elucidation into how science fiction is defined as both a genre and as a form of cultural expression, before offering a conceptualization of the novum. Here, I will condense Darko Suvin’s theory of science fiction, paying great attention to his concepts of cognitive estrangement and the novum and substantiate these concepts with theories by other scholars. I will then link Suvin’s theory to science fiction film and adjoin theory of a number of film genre theorists. The second chapter of the theoretical framework offers an exposition of the theory of late modernity. This theory is provided by a number of scholars, Johan Fornäs as a central figure among them, and includes concept such as individualization, mediated experience and 4 technology, among others. This chapter will conclude in bringing together these two fields of scholarly discourse in an attempt to provide a backdrop for the analysis that will follow. In my analysis, I will first attempt to categories several types of nova, according to their implications in the science fiction story as well as their ability to reflect on and critique the late modern society. Through these categories I will provide an overview and attempt to demonstrate the ability of the science fiction film genre to address a variety of themes. Every category will include a diversity in nova, expressed through various films. In demarcating the scope of science fiction films for this thesis I have attempted to create a cross section of science fiction films, avoiding a replication of any science fiction canon. This means that my choice in science fiction films was not influence by any “Top 100” list but was rather shaped by personal interest and an attempt to propose a more diverse selection. In this thesis the potency of the science fiction film genre to reflect the human condition related to our current late modern problems will be reinforced, this will be corroborated by thematic and textual evidence from recent science fiction films. 5 a. Theoretical framework 1. Science fiction “The strange is menacing because it looms in the future of man.” – Darko Suvin, Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (1979) Originating in literature, the science fiction genre has also been represented prominently at the onset of other mediums, like film, comic strips and videogames. In 1971, Computer Space was the very first arcade video game, players had to control a space ship and engage in an outer space war against flying saucers. The production of video games has come a long way since then. Weighing heavily on virtual storytelling and interactive storyboards, recent science fiction videogames have reached a similar level of critique on modern society as their literary and cinematic counterparts. The new science fiction video game Detroit: Become Human (2018), in which the player is focalized through three androids that have become self-conscious, prompts interrogations into the possibilities of artificial intelligence (testing the player’s empathic abilities) and especially into the dangers of the accelerating pace of innovations in technology and what this entails for the future of mankind.1 In an increasing number of science fiction video games questions are raised about the relationship between mankind and technology, exploring an array of themes ranging from ecology to mankind’s relation to artificial intelligence. These themes, among others, are thus ever-present and thoroughly explored in the science fiction genre throughout its relatively short history. In this chapter, the genre’s characterizing themes, iconography and narrative structures will be presented and adduced in dialogue with prominent scholarly discourse. The science fiction genre has been widely discussed over the past few decades, especially in literary fields and more recently also in film studies. Similar to the struggle for recognition of the value of science fiction literature, the critical acceptance of science fiction films has been contested by some and increasingly defended by others. The history of the science fiction genre of both literature and film is aptly discussed in Sherryl Vint’s Science Fiction: Guide to the Perplexed (2014): 1 Meeus, Ronald. “Wanneer technologie over technologie vertelt.” DeMorgen, 18 May 2018, p. 20. 6 “If sf came to prominence as a new literature in a late nineteenth century struggling