Электричество в техноландшафтах русских фантастических и утопических романов XIX в.

Международный журнал исследований культуры. 2020. Т. 2. № 39. С. 117–129.

Nikiforova N.

In science fiction and utopian novels published in Russia in the nineteenth century locations and territorial characteristics set certain coordinates to interpret various cultural phenomena and ideas. Ideas about the progress, development, evolution, possible future are located in exotic countries, remote regions, on other planets, at the bottom of the ocean, other temporal periods. Spaces in the novels are not stable static background or a container for the narrative, rather they set a framework for reflection on the problems of colonization, specificity of the status of Russia in terms of its relation to the West and to the East, about alternative possibilities of “non-western” progress, about the role of science and technology in social change. basing on the approaches of spatial analysis, developed within literary studies, the paper looks at loci of concentration of technoscientific practices linked with study and usage of electricity (the role of electricity in social wellbeing of the utopian communities; electrotechnical devices that become the means to reach certain territories and states of mind; places of presentation and exposure of electrical technology; affective and irrational connotations of the “places of electricity”). The paper will also analyze the questions of technological intervention into natural landscapes, the role of transportation in spatial analysis of literary works, temporal characteristics of science fiction and utopian novels.

Keywords: утопия, spatial turn, электричество, utopia, пространственный поворот, electricity, science fiction, научная фантастика, technotopia, технотопия

Publication based on the results of: Spatial Factor in Theoretical Field of Humanities and Social Sciences (2019)