Book contents
- The Near Future in Twenty-First-Century Fiction
- Cambridge Studies in Twenty-First-Century Literature and Culture
- The Near Future in Twenty-First-Century Fiction
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Domestic Near Future 1
- Chapter 2 The Domestic Near Future 2
- Chapter 3 State of the Arts
- Chapter 4 Diagnostic Dead-Ends
- Chapter 5 The Art of History
- Chapter 6 Identity and Power
- Chapter 7 In Search of Revolution
- Chapter 8 The Genre of Revolution
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 7 - In Search of Revolution
Territory and History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2023
- The Near Future in Twenty-First-Century Fiction
- Cambridge Studies in Twenty-First-Century Literature and Culture
- The Near Future in Twenty-First-Century Fiction
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Domestic Near Future 1
- Chapter 2 The Domestic Near Future 2
- Chapter 3 State of the Arts
- Chapter 4 Diagnostic Dead-Ends
- Chapter 5 The Art of History
- Chapter 6 Identity and Power
- Chapter 7 In Search of Revolution
- Chapter 8 The Genre of Revolution
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The fictions in this chapter break from early twenty-first-century novels of revolution, in which the historical rupture was relativized or treated ironically: given imminent planetary disaster, they cannot afford to desert the prospect of a radical transformation of society. However, while all four novels are preoccupied with territory, they cannot imagine a history that might sustain a new kind of politics upon it. Walkaway by Corey Doctorow (2017) demonstrates how the difficulty of imagining revolution today is linked to genre and space, as a failure to locate the first causes the collapse of the second. Infomocracy by Malka Older (2016) portrays a world that has already achieved a radical transition, but the lack of economic change leaves this as global capitalism in territorial fancy dress. Zone One by Colson Whitehead (2011) occurs in the wake of a zombie apocalypse that only confirms the undead continuation of both neoliberal capitalism and the contemporary genre matrix. Finally, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009) sees a revolution split between territory and history, as it is unable to reconcile two elements of a potential revolutionary collective: the subjected citizen and the subjected refugee.
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- The Near Future in Twenty-First-Century FictionClimate, Retreat and Revolution, pp. 139 - 158Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022