ReS Futurae (Dec 2023)
De la science‑fiction à la science‑fictionnalisation : la prise de la SF sur le monde réel
Abstract
This article explores the different kinds of traction science fiction might have on the real and, in particular, attempts to define a kind of experimental writing practice (when this is broadly construed) that is less about the future than an instantiation of it. It begins with a commentary on Fredric Jameson and Raymond Williams, and their writings on utopia and sf, and then proceeds to Quentin Meillassoux’s concept of an ‘extro‑science fiction’ – or fictions about worlds in which science is impossible – before proposing that formal experimentation (and especially the illogical sequencing of sentences and use of atypical syntax) serves to present these other space‑times. Experimental sf does not so much describe future worlds as fiction them within this one, offering a concrete ‘non‑literary’ counterpart to the utopian hopes of Jameson and Williams. The final section offers a case study of, what I will call, ‘science fictioning’: the experimental sf ‘novel’ (that is also a theoretical tract and visual art work) Cyberpositive (1996) by the art collective (or ‘collaborative artist’) known as o[rphan] d[rift>].
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