Paranoid Imaginaries and Megatextual Utopianism
Paranoid Imaginaries and Megatextual Utopianism
Author(s): Alexander PopovSubject(s): History of ideas, Comparative Study of Literature, American Literature
Published by: Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai
Keywords: Paranoia; Utopian Studies; Meganovel; Megatext; Philip K. Dick; Thomas Pynchon;
Summary/Abstract: The article explores the hypothesis that Utopian and Paranoid SF, both of which produced some of their most influential texts in the 1970s, co-evolved under structurally similar pressures and developed analogous conceptual instruments to engage with the question of totality. It proposes a theoretical model that situates the two subgenres in a network of conceptual positions regarding fundamental categories such as space, time and subjectivity. The model is then applied in readings of key novels of Paranoid SF: Robert Shea and Robert Wilson’s Illuminatus! Trilogy, Philip Dick’s Ubik, A Scanner Darkly and VALIS, and Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.
Journal: Caietele Echinox
- Issue Year: 2024
- Issue No: 46
- Page Range: 349-364
- Page Count: 16
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF