Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Dissertations that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.
Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6581-9805
AccessType
Open Access Dissertation
Document Type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
English
Year Degree Awarded
2022
Month Degree Awarded
May
First Advisor
Randall Knoper
Second Advisor
Ruth Jennison
Third Advisor
Hoang G. Phan
Fourth Advisor
Maria José Botelho
Subject Categories
English Language and Literature
Abstract
This dissertation examines contemporary science fiction texts with utopian impulses through the lens of Marxist literary theory to show how these texts enact the encouragement, process, and end result of revolutionary transformation. The interdisciplinary theoretical framework of this dissertation utilizes Tom Moylan’s analysis of critical utopias, Darko Suvin’s theory of cognitive estrangement, Fredric Jameson’s concept of cognitive mapping, theories of postcapitalism from the sociological, economic, and political fields, the findings presented in Why Civil Resistance Works, and Erik Olin Wright’s definitions of the ruptural, interstitial, and symbiotic strategies of revolutionary transformation. The analysis of Dissidence, Insurgence, Emergence, Walkaway, and 2140 using this theoretical framework demonstrates how these texts enact the encouragement, process, and end result of revolutionary transformation. Additionally, this analysis provides a clearer picture of the current moment of late capitalism, offers a means of evaluating the ruptural, interstitial, and symbiotic strategies through the thought experiments provided by the texts to contribute to conversations in the sociological, economic, and political fields regarding the implementation of such strategies to achieve a transformation of the current moment of capitalism, and demonstrates the contribution of contemporary utopian science fiction texts to such revolutionary transformation.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/28529434
Recommended Citation
Blanchard, Katharine, "Science Fiction’s Enactment of the Encouragement, Process, and End Result of Revolutionary Transformation" (2022). Doctoral Dissertations. 2522.
https://doi.org/10.7275/28529434
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/2522