Zone Theory: Science Fiction and Utopia in the Space of Possible Worlds (Ralahine Utopian Studies, 28)

Cover
HalfTitle
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Figures
Permissions
part i
Maps
Chapter 1
Between Model and Monster
	Science Fiction, Utopia, Genre
	SF and Totality
	A Survey of Instruments
Chapter 2
Modalizing Utopia
	The Semiotic Square I
	Anti-anti-utopia as a Site of Emergence
	Utopia as a Verbal Construction
	Ideogenesis and the Modal Structure of Becoming
	The Semiotic Square II: Modal Definitions, Vectors, Force Fields
Chapter 3
Six Excursuses on Modal Science Fiction
	Modal Conflict 1: ‘Bloodchild’ by Octavia Butler
	Modal Conflict 2: ‘Sundance’ by Robert Silverberg
	Transmodal Conflict 1: ‘The Electric Ant’ by Philip K. Dick
	Transmodal Conflict 2: ‘Solitude’ by Ursula Le Guin
	Modal Founding: ‘Angouleme’ by Thomas M. Disch29
	Transmodal Founding: ‘Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death’ by James Tiptree Jr.
	SF as a Mode for Making Worldviews
Chapter 4
The Utopian Diagram
	The Perpetual Battle
	Folding as Subjectivation
		Complex: Critical Utopia/Dystopia
		Neutral: Heterotopia
		Deictic I: Atopia
		Deictic II: Ecotopia
		Paradoxical I: Salvage
		Paradoxical II: Liberal Communism
	Unfolding towards Infinity
	Refolding as a Return to the Finite
part ii
Fold
Chapter 5
Topologies of Revolutionary Time: Critical Utopia, Critical Dystopia, Heterotopia
	The Utopian Hyperobject
		OOO or P(OO)?
		Literary Utopia/Literary Image
		Modelling Utopian Topologies
	The Dispossessed: Revolution as Permanent and Necessary Return
	Trouble on Triton: The Impossibility of Totality
	Iron Council: Networks of Resistance and Remaking
	The Mars Trilogy: Towards an Ontology of the Possible
Chapter 6
Non/Inhuman Spaces and Economies of the Self
	Always Coming Home: Ecotopia and the Proliferation of Place
	The City & the City: A Nationalistic Atopia
	Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition: Mapping Globalization
	The Water Knife: Patchiness and Atopian Capture
Chapter 7
Anti-Anti-Utopia and Totality
	The Ministry for the Future: ‘One of the Blackest Utopias Ever Written’
	New York 2140: The Comedy of the Commons
part iii
Unfold
Chapter 8
Rewriting Myth and Genre: Narrative Modalities and Possible Worlds
Chapter 9
A Cartography of Zones: Inhuman Spaces and Ontological Ruination
	Roadside Picnic: The Original Zone
	The Snail on the Slope: ‘Big deal, machines! We’re all machines’
	The Southern Reach Trilogy: ‘Because we’re these incredibly blunt instruments’
part iv
Refold
Chapter 10
Staying with the Singularity: Nonhuman Narrators and More-Than-Human Mythologies
	Lifeboats Out of Stories
	Ka: From the Birth of Stories to the End of the World
	The Only Harmless Great Thing: Suffering-With and Making Peace
	The Overstory: Another Kind of Singularity
	Coda: Possible Worlds
Chapter 11
Anti-Anti-Utopia Redux: Utopia as Virus
	Xenogenesis: Life as Trade
	Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand: Utopia as Difference/Desire
	2312: ‘Is the totality simply praxis?’
Bibliography