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The Simulacrum in Contemporary Science Fiction: Atwood, Willis

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The Simulacrum in Contemporary Science Fiction: Atwood, Willis Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Amanda Pavani Fernandes (CNPq/CAPES) The simulacrum in contemporary science fiction: Atwood, Willis, Piercy, Collins, Cadigan Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Literários Belo Horizonte, 2020. Amanda Pavani Fernandes The simulacrum in contemporary science fiction: Atwood, Willis, Piercy, Collins, Cadigan Tese final apresentada ao Programa de Pós- Graduação em Estudos Literários da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais como parte dos requisitos para a obtenção do grau de Doutora. Área de concentração: Literaturas em Língua Inglesa. Linha de pesquisa: Poéticas da Modernidade. Orientador: Luiz Fernando Ferreira Sá Belo Horizonte Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Faculdade de Letras 2020 Ficha catalográfica elaborada pelos Bibliotecários da Biblioteca FALE/UFMG Fernandes, Amanda Pavani. A887.Yf-s The simulacrum in contemporary science fiction [manuscrito] : Atwood, Willis, Piercy, Collins, Cadigan / Amanda Pavani Fernandes. – 2020. 200 f., enc. Orientador: Luiz Fernando Ferreira Sá. Área de concentração: Literaturas em Língua Inglesa. Linha de Pesquisa: Poéticas da Modernidade. Tese (doutorado) – Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Faculdade de Letras. Bibliografia: f. 189-200. 1. Atwood, Margaret Eleonor, 1939- – Oryx and Crake – Crítica e interpretação – Teses. 2. Atwood, Margaret Eleonor, 1939- –Heart Goes Last – Crítica e interpretação – Teses. 3. Willis, Connie, 1945- – Doomsday Book – Crítica e interpretação – Teses. 4. Piercy, Marge, 1936- – He, She, and It – Crítica e interpretação – Teses. 5. Cadigan, Pat, 1953- – Synners – Crítica e interpretação – Teses. 6. Collins, Suzanne. – Mockingjay. Crítica e interpretação – Teses. 7. Ficção científica – História e crítica – Teses. I. Sá, Luiz Fernando Ferreira. II. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Faculdade de Letras. III. Título. CDD: C813.52 Para o meu pai. For my father. Acknowledgements It is a great joy to be able to conclude this period of my career. I had immense help in several fronts, and more opportunity than I can feel I deserved at all. First, I would like to thank Professor Luiz Fernando Ferreira Sá, who advised me throughout my master’s and my doctorate. I am extremely grateful to Professor Tom Moylan, who advised me during my period at the University of Limerick, in Ireland. He provided insights into the ideas I had of utopianisms and dismantled assumptions I previously had. I also thank Professor Mariano Paz, who also advised me while I was in Limerick, reading my work and pointing out instances of my verbose phrasing. Thanks to both CAPES and CNPq for the funding provided both in Brazil and in Ireland. I also thank all the professors who agreed to compose the examination board for my VIVA, for taking the time and for providing me with further insight. I am also grateful to Pat Cadigan, who I was able to meet both in 2018 and 2019, who showed me that meeting your heroes can be a wonderful experience. I want to thank my closest friends, who heard so many complaints from me during all the times that I was certain that I should give up: Zildinha, Melissa, Flávia, Gabi, Jejé, Clélio, Luciene, Cléber must all be so exhausted that I can only hope to retain your friendship once this is over. I thank my Irish friends for the support and for the several shots o’clock that took place in those months we were together: Martina, Darragh, Stuart and Rob, I miss you all. I want to thank all the members of our new research group, NEUFIC, with special emphasis to Valéria, Melissa and Mariane, who are present and influential in research discussions and extremely helpful in organising events. To Mário, for his unwavering support during his own work on his doctorate. For his support when my mother passed, in March 2019. For accepting me the way I am and still staying around. To my father, to whom I dedicate this work, for being the family I have, for saying that I matter and that I am good the way I am. Agradecimentos É uma grande alegria poder concluir esse período da minha carreira. Eu tive ajuda demais em vários aspectos, e muito mais oportunidades do que eu sinto ter merecido. Primeiramente, quero agradecer ao Professor Luiz Fernando Ferreira Sá, que me orientou tanto no meu mestrado quanto neste doutorado. Sou extremamente grata ao Professor Tom Moylan, que me orientou durante meu período na Universidade de Limerick, na Irlanda. Ele esclareceu e mudou as ideias que eu tinha de utopismos e desmantelou suposições que eu nem sabia ter. Quero também agradecer ao Professor Mariano Paz, que também me supervisionou em Limerick, com a paciência de ler meu trabalho e indicar trechos em que eu me alonguei demais. Obrigada tanto à CAPES quanto ao CNPq, pelo apoio financeiro tanto no Brasil quanto na Irlanda. Quero também agradecer aos professores que concordaram em compor a banca da minha defesa, tanto pelo tempo dedicado quanto pelas ideias fornecidas pela melhoria deste trabalho. Sou grata também a Pat Cadigan, quem pude encontrar em 2018 e 2019, que me mostrou que encontrar seus heróis pode, sim, ser uma experiência maravilhosa. Quero agradecer aos meus amigos mais próximos, que ouviram tantas reclamações todas as vezes em que eu tive certeza de que devia desistir: Zildinha, Melissa, Flávia, Gabi, Jejé, Clélio, Luciene, Cléber, vocês devem estar todos exaustos, e só me resta esperar manter sua amizade quando isso acabar. Obrigada aos meus amigos irlandeses pelo apoio e por nossos vários shots o’clock nesses meses que passamos juntos: Martina, Darragh, Stuart e Rob, tenho saudade de todos vocês. Quero agradecer a todos os membros do nosso novo grupo de pesquisa, o NEUFIC, com ênfase para Valéria, Melissa e Mariane, muito presentes e participantes em discussões e ativas nas organizações de eventos. Ao Mário, por seu apoio incondicional durante esse tempo todo, enquanto ele trabalhava em seu próprio doutorado. Por seu apoio quando minha mãe faleceu, em março de 2019. Por me aceitar do jeito que eu sou e ainda ficar aqui. Ao meu pai, a quem dedico esse trabalho, por ser a família que eu tenho, por dizer que eu importo, e que sou boa o suficiente do jeito que sou. ‘Forget Schrodinger. Yo, Pandora, how’s your headache? . Mark knew. The door only swings one way. Once it’s out of the box, it’s always too big to go back in. Can’t bury that technology. All we can do is get on top of it and stay the fuck on top. All appropriate technology hurt somebody. A whole lot of somebodies. Nuclear fission, fusion, the fucking Ford assembly line, the fucking airplane. Fire, for Christ’s sake. Every technology has its original sin. Pat Cadigan, Synners. ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates five science fiction novels, published between 1991 and 2015, and their relationship with senses of reality, communication, mediation of experiences, the industry of entertainment, of political propaganda and the complex ties between humanity and technology. The analysis based on Jean Baudrillard’s concept from Simulacra and Simulation (1992), the simulacrum, formed of “copies that depict things that either had no original, or that no longer have an original”. The literary works analysed were: Connie Willis’ The Doomsday Book (1992); Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake; Margaret Atwood’s The Heart Goes Last; Marge Piercy’s He, She, and It (1993); Pat Cadigan’s Synners (1991); and Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay (2013). The research included a discussion of the critical trajectory of Baudrillard’s views on copies, originals, and symbols, in relation to his political history and his connections to both Marxist and, later, Postmodernist values, after which a claim is made on the relevance of reading literature through the simulacrum as an intra-medial approach, that is, by analysing instances of novels as opposed to seeing literature as a simulacrum itself. Oryx and Crake is related to simulacra in the way it depicts a rupture with processes of signification, with a conquest of the arts and most forms of entertainment through the simulacrum. The concept is also studied from the perspective of Utopian Studies: based on Tom Moylan’s critical work, traces in common between science fiction, utopianisms and their world-building practices are outlined and exemplified in the utopian/dystopian moving blocks of The Doomsday Book, which subverts stereotypes of the future as necessarily advanced in contrast to the supposedly regressive Middle Ages. The Heart Goes Last is structured around a dystopia within an abstract utopia, to use Ernst Bloch’s terminology; it warps experiences in its reduction of art and media from company-sanctioned movies from the 1950s and other pieces deemed harmless and pleasant. He, She, and It includes a utopian enclave, the small town of Tikva, in a context that includes the substitution of nations for conglomerates. Their survival commodity is simulations, chimeras, programming pieces. Terry Eagleton’s analysis of the role ideology plays in literature is also discussed and compared to the functioning of simulacra, and their appearances in the novels in relation to a naturalization of hegemonic discourses. That is the case in Cadigan’s Synners, whose world deteriorates as a result of unchecked capitalism and progress for its own sake. In Mockingjay, by Collins, that ideology is that of war propaganda, which fabricates narratives to justify state violence and validate pre-existing powers. The narrative in contemporary science fiction is often interconnected by simulacra, whose perception can foster critical readings and a displacement of certainties, which would enrich the reading experience. RESUMO Esta tese investiga cinco romances de ficção científica, publicados entre 1991 e 2015, e suas relações com conceitos como realidade, comunicação, mediação de experiências, a indústria do entretenimento, a propaganda política e o relacionamento complexo que a humanidade tem estabelecido com a tecnologia, baseada no conceito de simulacro de Jean Baudrillard em Simulacro e Simulação (1992).
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