scholarly journals ELEMENTS OF ANTI-UTOPIA IN THE NOVEL "RADIO NIGHT" BY YU. ANDRUKHOVYCH

2021 ◽  
pp. 27-35
Author(s):  
L. Pecherskyh
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
Social Thinking ◽  
The Past ◽  
Utopian Thinking ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Micro Elements

The article deals with the relevance of anti-utopian discourse in the twentieth century, which is considered a time of anti-utopian social thinking in view of historical reality. The study outlines the problems of transformation of the genre of anti-utopia in the postmodern era on the basis of the most notable research on the material of modern Ukrainian prose. It is emphasized that anti-utopia in the XXI century expands the boundaries of its existence as a literary genre, becoming a socio-cultural phenomenon of perception of reality. The list of characteristic features of the genre of literary anti-utopia is given. Based on the analysis of the novel "Radio Night" by Yu. Andrukhovych, the author finds out that this text contains features of both utopia and anti-utopia. The utopian thinking embodied in the work is based on an optimistic perception of the past, anti-utopianism is rooted in the area of doubt, which emphasizes the negative aspects of society and social consciousness as a result of the effect of dependence on previous development ("path dependence") or the effect of track, social inertia, when the negative attitudes that have been developed over the decades make positive progress impossible. It is noted in the article that the anti-utopian nature of the novel by Yu. Andrukhovych is manifested in the reflection of despair in the possibility of embodying the ideals of the Revolution of Dignity, illusory human freedom, the theme of confrontation to the digital sphere, determinism of human destiny, the modality of constant movement, the idea of an artificial man, the creation of a collective negative image of the state. It is stated that the fate of the hero is in the center of the plot, the attention is focused on the consequences of resistance to the system for the privacy of the average person. The article points out that the genre variety of the novel "Radio Night" testifies to the process of genre diffusion in the dynamics of genre transformations: elements of utopia evolve into elements of anti-utopia, micro-elements of science fiction genre are involved, which can be classified as included genre. The synthetic nature of the genre of the text by Yu. Andrukhovych is stated, a conclusion is made about the unfolding of a genre variety of escapic metautopia or postutopia in the novel.

scholarly journals Two crossbows and a carbine: Out of the commentary on A.N. and B.N. Strugatsky’s novel “Hard to be a God”

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-58
Author(s):  
Irina N. Arzamastseva ◽  
Alexander V. Kuznetsov
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sea Monster ◽  
Intertextual Connections

The article is devoted to the study of the functions of the characters’ weapons in A.N. and B.N. Strugatsky’s novel “Hard to be a God”. It is important for writing a commentary on the prologue of the novel. The authors used the historical-typological and mythopoetic research methods. As the result of reviewing the history of words-concepts, as it made by A.N. Veselovsky, the authors managed to study the intertextual connections of “Hard to be a God” with V.T. Shalamov’s poem “Crossbow” and his story “May”, as well as N.S. Gumilev’s poem “Just looks through the cliffs...” and E. Hemingway’s play “The fifth column”. Through these connections, the image of weapons is formed in the work of science fiction writers. It is necessary to destruct the mythological enemy – the sea monster, which symbolizes the social evil within the novel framework. As we have found out, the reason for such an intricate symbolism lies in the peculiarities of the age: the image of the sea monster standing for public evil is due to historical reasons. And since the elimination of social problems by such radical methods, according to the authors, is impossible, the movement towards a bright future should be only gradual and peaceful. As in reality, weapons are fundamentally unable to perform their task. Moreover, the weapon is dangerous for its owner, which indicates the ambivalence of the image. In addition, the comparison, important for the novel “Hard to be God”, of the past and future appears the first in the comparison of crossbows and carbines, further developing by other means. Weapons are involved in creating a number of important motives: doom, the danger of using force, and interference in the course of history.

scholarly journals Rhizomatic Cities in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-194
Author(s):  
Sambit Panigrahi
Keyword(s):  
Structural Stability ◽  
Coherent Structure ◽  
Structural Modeling ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Past ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
Structural Coherence ◽  
Critical Responses ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The Individual

Italo Calvino’s highly successful novel Invisible Cities thoroughly explains Deleuze and Guattari’s famous postmodern concept of rhizome. The cities in the novel do not possess a fixed and coherent structure; rather they exude a structurality that is immensely fleeting and continually evolving. Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities which ironically precedes Deleuze and Guattari’s book A Thousand Plateaus clearly demonstrates the defining characteristic features of rhizome through the unusual and seemingly incomprehensible structure of the individual cities. There have been scanty critical responses in the past regarding the rhizomatic behavior of Calvino’s cities, despite an extraordinary abundance of critical works existing on Calvino’s writing. The rhizomatic patterns of Calvino’s cities, it is believed by the author, need further critical attention. Rhizome, through its perpetually unstable structural modeling, perhaps most effectively demonstrates our utterly disarrayed postmodern condition of existence where any desired structural stability and coherence is a virtual impossibility, and of this trait, Calvino’s cities in the said novel are the principal demonstrators. Based on these precepts, this article intends to analyze how Calvino’s cities in the novel, with their perpetual and immense structural variabilities, exude before the readers a typical postmodern world that wholesomely discards the very idea of structural coherence and stability.  

scholarly journals Fabelvejen mod nord

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (82) ◽  
pp. 67-84
Author(s):  
Morten Auklend
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Past ◽  
Hard Times ◽  
Mainstream Science

Merethe Lindstrøm’s novel Nord [North] (2017) deals with end time-themes. The novel formally departs from mainstream science fiction and apocalyptic fiction by providing flashes of the past and the present in concentrated lyrical images that are repeated throughout the novel. Through poetic rituals and ceremonies, and in metaphorical patterns of personification wherein a devastated nature comes ‘alive’, a world is reborn rhetorically and the reader is forced to ponder the abilities and qualities embedded in an overwhelmingly poetical language. By focusing on the demarcation of literal and figurative language and the transcendence of poetic images of nature, the novel becomes a contemplation of individuals coping with questions concerning identity and remembrance in an inhuman world. The article demonstrates how devices and perspectives provided by science fiction can provide strong thought for hard times.

scholarly journals The Last Day and Brexit: Delusions of Future Past

Porównania ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-177
Author(s):  
Justyna Jajszczok
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Ideological Background

The paper aims to show how the traditions of science fiction and, above all, invasion literature provide the ideological background for reading Andrew Hunter Murray’s The Last Day as a novel about Brexit. As it draws on anxious visions of the future, in which the enemy lurks around every corner, and the only salvation is complete isolation from the world, Murray’s work is read here as a Brexit dream come true, in which Britain is once again great, independent and uncontaminated by foreign elements. By evoking the myths that focus only on glory and conveniently “forget” the dark sides of the empire, the novel demonstrates that the fantasies of the past are as distant as the fantasies of the future; the loss of the world that never was is reworked in The Last Day into the loss of ecologically viable planet.

Four new Lower Barremian amber outcrops from Northern Lebanon

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-339
Author(s):  
SIBELLE MAKSOUD ◽  
KHALED TALEB ◽  
DANY AZAR
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Steven Spielberg ◽  
Plant Resin ◽  
The Past ◽  
American Science

Amber is a fossilized plant resin that is preserved and modified throughout geological time (Langenheim, 1969). The complexity of the chemical composition of amber makes it unique considering the preservation of biological inclusions in their 3D pristine and minute details (Langenheim, 2003). Its age ranges between a few millions and 320 million years (mid-Carboniferous) (Sargent Bray & Anderson, 2009). During the past two to three decades, the discoveries worldwide of new amber outcrops have increased. There is no doubt that Jurassic Park in 1993, the famous American science fiction adventure thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton, played a noticeable role in making amber more popular. Before this date, interest in amber was mainly restricted to Baltic and Caribbean countries, though amber occurrence was known from several localities worldwide.

scholarly journals Strategies of Cognitive Estrangement in Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-121
Author(s):  
Michał Klata
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
The Past ◽  
Unusual Position

Abstract This paper seeks to analyse the strategies of cognitive estrangement employed by the science fiction writer and literary scholar Kim Stanley Robinson in his New York 2140 (2017). I argue that the novel was written as a call to action to mitigate the effects of climate change, and rather than being merely a description of a particular vision of the future, provides a comment on the current ecological crisis, mechanisms of history, and human agency. Robinson’s unusual position at the intersection of the field of literary production and literature studies allowed him to apply the ideas developed for the analysis of the genre of science fiction in his creative work. The three main thematic areas in the novel are ecology, politics, and history. In each of these, allusions to the present, the past, and literary tradition, characterisation, and narrative structure are used as a means to convey the author’s message and sensitise the reader to issues connected with ecology and social justice, painting a realistic, yet hopeful vision where human civilisation carries on despite the consequences of global warming.

scholarly journals Augmented Reality and Life in the Cyberspace in William Gibson’s Neuromancer

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Md. Shafiqul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Story Line ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
The Relationship

This paper attempts a cybercritical reading of William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer (1984) to explore the genesis of cyborgs in the novel, address issues pertaining to cyberpunks and scrutinize the portrayal of a cyberculture set in the futuristic dystopian city of Chiba. The relationship between humans and machines has gone through multiple phases of changes in the recent past. That is why instead of satirizing machinized-humans, science fiction writers have embraced different dimensions of man-machine relationships during the past few decades. ‘Cyborg’ is no longer represented as the ‘mutation of human capabilities’, but as ‘machines with Artificial Intelligence’. Gibson’s Neuromancer, a landmark piece of literary work in the sphere of Sci-Fi literature, specifically predicts a new height of man-machine relationship by employing both human and cyborg characters at the center of his story line. This paper shows how Gibson accurately prophesizes the matrix of machine-human relationship in his novel. It also explores Gibson’s depiction of female characters through the lens of cyberfeminist theories. In view of that, this paper uses contemporary critical and cultural theories including Donna Haraway’s idea of cyberfeminism, Baudrillard’s simulation and simulacra, Foucauldian discourse analysis, Jeremy Bentham’s concept of tabula rasa and other relevant theoretical ideas to examine and evaluate the transformative changes.

scholarly journals GENRES' ECLECTICISM IN THE NOVEL BY VIKTORIA HRANETSKA "THE BODY©"

2019 ◽  
pp. 453-463
Author(s):  
V. V. Kalytiak
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The Body ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Horror Literature ◽  
The Fantastic ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
First Time

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the genres' eclecticism in the novel by Viktoria Hranetska "The body©". The purpose of an article is to find out the specifics of the genre on the base of the novel, the studying of the plot and compositional elements according to the postmodern discourse, the finding out the correlation between the different directions of the fantastic genre in the structure of the novel. Research methods In the context of studying the literary work, we used the basic principles of mythological, comparative-historical, psychological and typological methods. Results. The article deals with the genre and plot-compositional features of the novel "The body©", found out its leading motives, ways of representing them in the text and also postmodern features. We were able to identify the genres in which the text was created, and how they manifest themselves on the plot-compositional level. Scientific novelty. The author explores the genesis of science fiction and its kinds on the material of the novel and also gives the characterization of the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror. The author studies deeply the leading motifs of the horror literature – the motives the mettempsychosis with all its modifications on the example of the works of fiction of Ukrainian and world literatures for the first time. The article thoroughly analyzes the novel "The body©" as a postmodernist work of fiction wich have all features of postmodernism, in particular eclectic genres. Practical significance. The main principles of research can be used for a deeper understanding of the characteristic features of the fantastic sub-genres, the ability to distinguish them from the general canvas of science fiction.

Hydraulic Laboratory at University of Liège

2018 ◽  
pp. 80-89
Author(s):  
Willi H. Hager
Keyword(s):  
Basic Research ◽  
The Novel ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Current Position ◽  
Professional Background ◽  
The Past ◽  
Comprehensive Picture

The Hydraulic Laboratory of Liège University, Belgium, is historically considered from its foundation in 1937 to the mid-1960s. The technical facilities of the various Buildings are highlighted, along with canals and instrumentation available. It is noted that in its initial era, comparatively few basic research has been conducted, mainly due to the professional background of the professors leading the establishment. This state was improved in the past 50 years, however, particularly since the Laboratory was dislocated to its current position in the novel University Campus. Biographies of the leading persons associated with the Liège Hydraulic Laboratory are also presented, so that a comprehensive picture is given of one of the currently leading hydraulic Laboratories of Europe.

The Pornographer and McGahern's Allusive Practice

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-297
Author(s):  
Tom Walker
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Present Value ◽  
The Past

Allusions to other texts abound in John McGahern's fiction. His works repeatedly, though diffidently, refer to literary tradition. Yet the nature of such allusiveness is still unclear. This article focuses on how allusion in The Pornographer (1979) is depicted as an intellectual and social practice, embodying particular attitudes towards the function of texts and the knowledge they represent. Moreover, the critique of the practice of allusion that the novel undertakes is shown to have broader significance in terms of McGahern's whole oeuvre and its evolving attempts to salvage something of present value from the literature of the past.

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