Výzva na príspevky do časopisu World Literature Studies: Fikcionálne reality večného mieru

Editor: Johannes D. Kaminski (Ústav svetovej literatúry SAV, v. v. i.)

Jazyky príspevkov: angličtina, nemčina

Svoje abstrakty a krátky životopis pošlite, prosím, na adresu j.kaminski@savba.sk a v kópii na usvlwlit@savba.sk do 31. októbra 2023. (Odovzdanie štúdií vo februári – marci 2024.)

While Eternal Peace represents an elusive but necessary goal in philosophy, speculative fiction evinces a striking ambivalence about its desirability. One the one hand, the climaxes of science-fiction narratives frequently coincide with a utopian promise. On the last page of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy (1992–96), for example, Ann describes her new habitat in glowing terms: “Nowhere on this world were people killing each other, nowhere were they desperate for shelter or food, nowhere were they scared for their kids.” Peace has come, finally. On the other hand, the joyful prospect of Eternal Peace stands at odds with the experiences of those unlucky protagonists who indeed inhabit a society that has already been harmonized. Especially in dystopian writing, the beneficiaries of Eternal Peace are bound to suffer from oppressive laws and homogenized lifestyles. Others simply feel bored beyond belief. The Controller in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) already knows: “Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune.”