Dorko Suvin
DEFINED BY A HOLLOW ESSAYS ON UTOPIA, SCIENCE FICTION AND POLITICAL EPISTEMOLOGY
PETER LANG Oxford· Bern· Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main · New York· Wien
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http:/ /dnb.d-nb.de. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Suvin, Dorko, 1930Defined by a hollow : essays on utopia, science fiction and political epistemology I Dorko Suvin. p. em. - (Ralahine utopian studies ; v. 6) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-3-03911-403-0 (alk. paper) 1. Utopias in literature. 2. Science fiction-History and criticism. 3. Dystopias in literature. I. Title. PN56.U8S86 2010 809'.93372-dc22
2010005219
Cover image: lnterieur by Miljenko Stancic (1971). oil, 81cm x 65cm, in the possession of Dorko Suvin, reproduced by kind permission of Melita Stancic and Ivan P. Stancic, Zagreb. ISSN 1661-5875 ISBN 978-3-0391 1-403-0
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Contents
Dedication
ix
Seven Citations from Rimbaud and Brecht
xi
Acknowledgements
xiii
Phillip E. Wegner
Preface: Emerging from the Flood in Which We Are Sinking: Or, Reading with Darko Suvin (Again) Introduction 2008: On Hollows, or an Alarmed Door
xv 1
Chapter 1
Defining the Literary Genre of Utopia: Some Historical Semantics, Some Genology, a Proposal, and a Plea (1973)
17
Chapter 2
“Utopian” and “Scientific”: Two Attributes for Socialism from Engels (1976)
49
Chapter 3
Science Fiction and the Novum (1977)
67
Chapter 4
Poems of Doubt and Hope 1983–1988
93
vi
Chapter 5
Locus, Horizon, and Orientation: The Concept of Possible Worlds as a Key to Utopian Studies (1989) 111 Chapter 6
On William Gibson and Cyberpunk SF (1989–1991)
137
Chapter 7
The Doldrums: Eight Nasty Poems of 1989–1999
157
Chapter 8
Where Are We? How Did We Get Here? Is There Any Way Out? Or, News from th