The Utopias of Contemporary Science Fiction

Aleksandra CHOMIUK

Zakład Teorii Literatury, Instytut Filologii Polskiej, Wydział Humanistyczny, Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, pl. M. Curie-Skłodowskiej 4A, 20-031 Lublin, Poland , Poland

Abstract

The present article describes the relations obtaining between utopian thinking and three selected currents of Polish postwar science fiction prose: the science fiction of the socialist realism period, social science fiction and alternative stories. While all of them derive from the social and political problems of their times, each activates a different aspect of the element of science inherent in the literary genre of science fiction. In the case of socialist realism, the creation of the world depicted in the literary works is accomplished against the background of the advancements in the fields of physics and astrophysics. The reference point for the world models presented in social science fiction novels is sociology, together with social engineering and bioengineering, which are conceived of as practical variations of social meliorism. The context of the stories about alternative currents of history, which pose questions about the determinants of the historical process and expose history making mechanisms, is in turn provided by the philosophy of history.

Translated by Dorota Chabrajska

Keywords:

utopia, social realism, social science fiction, alternative history