Ingo Cornils

Beyond Tomorrow (eBook, ePUB)

German Science Fiction and Utopian Thought in the 20th and 21st Centuries

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Shows German Science Fiction's connections with utopian thought, and how it attempts Zukunftsbewältigung: coping with an uncertain but also unwritten future.



Since its beginnings, German Science Fiction (or SF) has engaged with social change and technological progress, often drawing from utopian thought. The writer Kurd Laßwitz challenged the authoritarian Wilhelmine order; later, filmdirector Fritz Lang provided a searing critique of Weimar society. Meanwhile utopian thinkers like Ernst Bloch and Herbert Marcuse insisted on the possibility of hope, even in the face of totalitarianism. During the Cold War, German utopian writing and filmmaking were vital both as a warning and as a creative imagining of possible futures. More recently, as rapid scientific and technological advances have continued, literary and cinematic responses have become increasingly dystopian in outlook, reflecting fears connected with globalization, advances in artificial intelligence and genetic engineering, and persistent challenges like climate change, hunger, migration, and terrorism.
This book explores German SF's responses to the question how humanity can match technological advances with social, ethical, and moral progress. It surveys German utopian thought and the German SF tradition-both literary andcinematic-providing close readings of selected works that paradoxically reflect boundless optimism for the possibility of change and increasing pessimism in its likelihood. English translations are provided throughout. Building onits rich tradition but now confidently entering the mainstream, German SF attempts Zukunftsbewältigung: coping with an uncertain but also unwritten future.

Ingo Cornils is Professor of German Studies at the University of Leeds.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Abingdon Press
• Seitenzahl: 332
• Erscheinungstermin: 15. September 2020
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781787449879
• Artikelnr.: 62902979

Autorenporträt

Ingo Cornils

Inhaltsangabe

Note on the Translations Acknowledgments Introduction Part I.The Great
Discourse on the Future Utopians and Utopian Thought Futurists and Futures
Studies Utopian/Dystopian Writers and Utopian/Dystopian Fiction Science
Fiction: The Nexus of Utopianism, Futurism, and Utopian Fiction Part II.
German Science Fiction in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries Some
Preliminary Thoughts on German Science Fiction First Contact: Martians,
Sentient Plants, and Swarm Intelligences The Shock of the New: Mega Cities,
Machines, and Rockets Utopian Experiments: Island Idylls, Glass Beads, and
Eugenic Nightmares To the Stars!: Cosmic Supermen and Bauhaus in Space
Visions of the End: Catastrophism and Moral Entropy Virtual Realities:
Caught in the Matrix Alternative Histories: Into the Heart of Darkness Big
Brother is Watching Us: Who is Watching Big Brother? Artificial
Intelligences: The Rise of the Thinking Machines Eternal Life: At What
Cost? Social Satires: Of Empty Slogans and Empty Hearts Critical
Posthumanism: Twilight of the Species or a New Dawn? High Concept: Time,
the Universe, and Everything Conclusion Appendix 1: Chronological List of
German SF Novels-A Selection Appendix 2: Chronological List of German SF
Films-A Selection Notes Bibliography Index