SF/F Now
In August 2014, I was invited to give a workshop on "Utopian Theory & Practice" for the SF/F Now conference at the University of Warwick with Dr Lisa Garforth (Newcastle University). SF/F Now was held as a 2-day international conference exploring the current research into the fantastic (in any medium) and the ways in which sf, fantasy, and the weird grapple with and illuminate the crucial political and social issues of the moment. Other invited workshops explored the relation of fantastic fiction to contemporary issues, including: Animal Studies; Crisis & Protest; Energy & Petrofiction; Environmental Studies; Humanity 2.0; Science Studies; World Systems & World Sf.
My contribution to the workshop considered a section from Heritage of Our Times (1935), by the German utopian philosopher Ernst Bloch. Outlining the historical context for Bloch's concept of Ungleichzeitigkeit (non-contemporaneity, or non-simultaneity) – Bloch's analysis of Weimar culture in the 1920s and 1930s, and the class composition of the German Mittelstand whose cultural heritage was appropriated by fascism – I asked the audience to consider the viability of the temporal formulation of non-contemporaneity for the 21st-century. I then offered an overview of Bloch's genre criticism, particularly his reading of "colportage" (a term he uses to refer to serialised pulp fictions, fairytles and fantasy texts), the Künstlerroman (the novel of the artist), specifically those texts featuring musical prodigies and composers, and late 19th-century utopian and science fictions, such as those by H. G. Wells, William Morris, Edward Bellamy and Aldous Huxley. My argument was centred upon the premise that an understanding of Bloch's Marxist philosophy of time is essential to reading his scattered sketches of literary criticism; and also that Bloch offers us the critical tools necessary to understanding what we mean by "the Now" – in 21st-century science fiction scholarship, as well as in the analysis of contemporary literature and culture.
To view the PowerPoint slides for this workshop please click on the link, or scroll through the embedded slides below.
Image by jonandsamfreecycle under a CC BY-NC-SA license.
Dr Caroline Edwards is Senior Lecturer in Modern & Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research and teaching specialisms are in 21st century literature and critical theory, science fiction and post-apocalyptic narratives, Marxist aesthetics, and utopianism.
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