Uncovering the apocalypse : narratives of collapse and transformation in the 21st century Fin de Siècle

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation examines the idea of apocalypse through the lens of science fiction (sf) written during thecurrent fin de siècle period. I have dated this epoch, known as the information era, as starting in 1980 with theadvent of personal computing and ending in approximately 2020 when the functional limits of silicon-baseddigital manufacturing and production are expected to be reached. By surveying the field of contemporary sf, Iidentify certain trends and subgenres that relate to particular aspects of apocalyptic thought, namely,conceptions of the 'terror of history,' the sublimity of accelerated techno-scientific advance, the 'affective turn'in media-culture and posthuman philosophy. My principal method of inquiry into how the apocalypse isimagined or 'figured' in sf is the concept of hyperstition – a neologism (combining the words 'hyper' and'superstition') coined by the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU). Hyperstition describes an aestheticresponse whereby cultural fictions – principally, ideas relating to apocalypse – are imagined as transmuting intomaterial realities. I begin by scrutinizing two posthumanist works of theory-fiction (theory written in the modeof sf) by the CCRU and 0rphan Drift which anticipate immanent human extinction and imagine the inception ofa new evolutionary cycle of machine-augmented evolution This sensibility is premised on the sociallydestabilisingcycles of exponential growth that characterise information-era technological developments,particularly in the digital industries, as well as the accelerated human impact on the natural environment. Centralto my argument is the romantic materialist philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari and their concepts ofaccelerationism, schizoanalysis and Bodies without Organs (BwO's). Their ontology is constructed around theidea that exponential rates of development necessitate a new aesthetic paradigm that ventures beyondphilosophies of human access. The narrative of apocalypse, approached from this perspective, can be interpretedin catastrophic or anastrophic terms; either as a permanent ending or as the beginning of something radicallynew. Using hyperstition, I also investigate the sf of Russell Hoban, Michael Swanwick, Brian Stableford,Charles Stross, Dan Simmons, M. John Harrison and Paul McAuley to see not only how these authors interpretthe concept of cultural acceleration, but also to identify common threads. Countering the catastrophic 'death ofaffect' postulated by theorists such as Jean Baudrillard and Paul Virilio with the anastrophic rejoinder ofcyberdelic information-era countercultures, I conclude by investigating the new 'affective turn' in contemporarymedia theory. The works of theoretical fiction and sf that I investigate are informed, as I demonstrate, by theSituationist techniques of psychogeography, dérive and detournement, as well as by the literary tropes of 18thand 19th century fin de siècle Gothic and dark Romantic fiction.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University