Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Dystopian films'

Bad Pixels is a feature-length, microbudget, digital motion picture, produced, written, and directed by Alexander Jon Bowser as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Digital Media from the University of Central Florida. The materials contained herein serve as a record of the microbudget filmmaking experience. This thesis documents the challenges confronted by a first-time feature filmmaker; an evaluation of both the theory and application of a dynamic microbudget approach to digital content creation. From script development to digital distribution, the thesis aims to reflect on technical and procedural decisions made and assess their impact on the overall experience and final product.<br>ID: 029810312; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Includes screenplay.; Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.<br>M.F.A.<br>Masters<br>Film<br>Arts and Humanities

During this time of increased attention toward the representation of women in media, simply applauding including female characters often leaves out the analysis of what purpose they serve within their narratives. The anxiety over women’s fertility in Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017), Children of Men (Cuaron, 2006), and The Handmaid’s Tale (Bruce Miller, 2017) expresses a crisis in contemporary culture over changing gender roles. Even though these three texts use the antagonists to seek to control over women’s bodies, the narratives themselves still employ infertility as a threat for women. What does the reappearance of mass infertility in our dystopian media tell us about how we value and depict women? These audio-visual texts, set in disturbing futures, attempt to intervene discursively in these political conversations. Their narratives appear critical of hegemony on their surface, but lurking beneath is a return to gender essentialism that defines women through their ability to reproduce.

In this paper, I discuss the modern socio-technological state of global social control and its representation in my stop motion animated film P19. I will compare the ways in which social control has changed and remained the same from September 11, 2001 to the present. I will discuss the surveillance and control grids permeating all communication networks and how humans are interacting with them. I will conclude with an analysis of some of my techniques and processes in stop motion animation.

This study is a research on how dystopian features are expressed within different genres. The purpose is to discuss films that contain dystopian features in relation to genre and to examine if there are shared conventions in the films that can make dystopia a film genre on its own. The theoretical base includes genre theory and Rick Altman’s semantic/syntactic approach to film genre. Five films from different genres, all produced within the time period of 2000-2010, are analyzed with a semantic/syntactic approach to genre and then discussed in relation to dystopia and prior research. By using a semantic/syntactic approach to film genre it is possible to identify shared conventions. Only by using a co-ordinate semantic/syntactic approach is it possible to fully understand the interaction between conventions within a genre. The result shows that there are conventions that are characteristic for dystopia and dystopia can thus be considered a subgenre. The films analyzed in this essay share conventions characteristic for dystopia but also offer variation in form of, for example, theme. The subgenre dystopia therefore offers something familiar but also variation which is central in film genre. The analysis also shows that there are symbols that carry meaning within these films which implies that they have a common iconography.

This paper will discuss the making of my thesis film, Past the Darkness. I will describe the entire process including story conception, film production, and post-production stages. I will also evaluate the merits, flaws, and outcome of this project.

As an increasing body of historical and economic scholarship attests, the processes Marx placed under the heading of 'primitive accumulation', and which he saw as the precondition of capitalism, continue today in a particularly intense form. If Marx's main example in Capital, Volume 1 (1867) was the enclosure of English land from the late fifteenth century, now scholars can point to the expansion of intellectual property rights, the privatisation of water and other public services, the sale of the US national forests, the imposition of 'structural adjustment programmes', and the war in Afghanistan as so many 'new enclosures'-efforts to bring ever greater zones of human activity within the ambit of capitalist production. Yet what remains unexamined in this still-growing literature is how the new enclosures have been represented in the sphere of culture. Have cultural forms been able to register these new expropriations? If so, how have they depicted a process that is pervasive, but whose forms of appearance are so diverse? This thesis endeavours to answer such questions through the analysis of five major Hollywood science-fiction films of the 1980s: Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982), David Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983), and Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990). It argues that, taken together, these films develop an 'aesthetic of enclosure': a series of representational strategies that make enclosure visible. Typically understood by scholars as a critical and historicising genre, the science-fiction film is well positioned to detect, examine, and challenge capitalism's renewed efforts to privatise and dispossess.

<p>Uppsatsen belyser olika händelser som finns beskrivna i tre olika dystopiska filmer från 2000-talet. Uppsatsen jämför händelser i filmerna med historiska och nutida händelser i vårt samhälle. Uppsatsen försöker även visa om filmerna visar trovärdiga framtidsscenarion.</p>

This paper will detail the making of The Marked, exploring from concept to completion, with special focus on creating a dystopian, science fiction, film with an element of fantasy. I will begin by examining my inspirations. Next, I will explore preproduction, examining screenwriting, casting, location scouting, production, and preparation. Part three will look at production, focusing on directing, production design, cinematography, and on-set operations. Part four will examine post production, including, editing, color correction, sound design, and music. Each element of production will be evaluated to determine if they helped successfully create a believable, dystopian, fantasy story for the viewer. I will also be examining whether the themes I originally sought to explore come across in the film.

This thesis is a study of the gender politics through musical discourse in the Mad Max series. Dystopian narratives are particularly interesting texts for study of gender because they allow for extreme hypothetical situations in worlds that are at once familiar and unfamiliar. Musical discourse in the Mad Max films both supports and complicates dominant readings of gender constructions. I consider the gender politics of the franchise, using Mad Max (1979) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) as case studies, and drawing on scholarship on gender in film music, feminist film theory, and Australian car culture. In analyzing this music, I consider its broader cultural connotations, including film music tropes and operatic character types. After considering these genre associations, I analyze the musical gestures for narrative content and consider how the placement of themes with images and dialogue influences that content, with attention to how these factors contribute to a gendered understanding of the character. As the first deep thematic analysis of music in the Mad Max films, my project extends existing scholarship on both onscreen performance and gender categorizations that include musical forces resistant to strict binary categorization. My analysis of gendered musical discourse emphasizes the power of inquiry about gender in film music to clarify, enrich, and complicate texts.

Young Adult Dystopian Film exercises an influence over young people of which they are not aware. As part of a structure of domination these films teach students to participate in their own oppression by the capitalist system. The film industry maintains a hidden curriculum like that utilized in school classrooms to conceal the oppression from the masses. One particularly effective means is the portrayal of resistance against oppression in the narratives of the YA Dystopian Film. Young people are drawn to that narrative and end up supporting the structure of domination financially and ideologically. Modes of resistance to this oppression can be found in Media Literacy Education and Public Pedagogy (e.g. culture-jamming). Teachers can incorporate Media Literacy and culture–jamming into a form of radical pedagogy to emancipate students from that oppressive relationship.This thesis investigates the usage of this radical pedagogy though an action research project in a high school drama class in the intermountain west. The students learned the theories, critically reflected on the situation, and created a live culture-jamming performance. The results of the action research show the affordances and limitations of this approach and offer suggestions for instigating its usage by media literacy educators.

Emerging out of a tradition of dystopic and apocalyptic cinema, the survivalist film has arisen as a new subgenre owing to a collision of several divergent modes of cinema. While the scholarly discourse has been preoccupied largely with the task of setting up the parameters of this new cinematic line little attention has been paid to unraveling what the new modes of masculine performance within the films mean in the post-9/11 moment in which they have emerged. This paper looks at the ways in which the gendered heroics on the screen are indebted to the slasher and zombie subgenres in offering alternatives to performing and reclaiming masculinity in the modern survivalist film. Looking towards the collapse of society within these films and the historical preoccupation with these film's ancestral sources at moments when masculinity is threatened in new ways, I argue that when society collapses on the screen so too collapses the character's understanding of "proper" gender performance as well as the audiences expectations of appropriate response to this subversion. I find that survivalist films offer a new mode for exploring gender through the ways in which masculinity is performed, received, and reclaimed. Owing largely to the meeting of horror subgenres within these films masculinity can be encountered by the audience in a way that has until now not been possible for the spectator, presenting an opportunity to reevaluate how we recognize and regulate expectations of gender both on and off screen.

La mia tesi si occupa della rappresentazione della violenza in cinque racconti filmici distopici: 28 Days Later (2002), 28 Weeks Later (2007), Children of Men (2006), The Road (2009) e V for Vendetta (2006). La prima parte del lavoro riguarda l’adattamento, cioè le trasformazioni della violenza nel passaggio da un medium a un altro con particolare attenzione ai sistemi semiotici del romanzo, del fumetto e del film. La parte teorica viene illustrata attraverso l’analisi comparata di scene emblematiche prese dalle opere in questione. La seconda parte del lavoro è incentrata sui film come opere autonome. La mia tesi sostiene che la violenza, che è un aspetto fondamentale di questi film, può avere un effetto catartico. La catarsi richiede comunque la presenza di elementi mitologici che riflettono paure umane profondamente radicate. Essa può essere tragica o melodrammatica a seconda della complessità della trama e dei personaggi.<br>This thesis deals with the representation of violence in five dystopian film narratives: 28 Days Later (2002), 28 Weeks Later (2007), Children of Men (2006), The Road (2009) and V for Vendetta (2006). The first part of the study addresses the adaptation process analysing the transformations fictional violence undergoes when transferred from one medium to another. The focus lies on the semiotic systems of the novel, the graphic novel and the film. The theoretical aspects are illustrated by the close comparative analysis of emblematic scenes taken from the works in question. The second part of this study focuses on the films as autonomous works. My thesis sustains that violence, which is central to these films, can have a cathartic effect on the viewer. However, catharsis requires the presence of underlying mythical elements which reflect deeply rooted human anxieties. The quality of the catharsis can be tragic or melodramatic, depending on the complexity of plot and characters.

La intel·ligència artificial ha estat un concepte que captiva la humanitat des de fa mil·lennis. Des de l'antiguitat, els humans estan obsessionats amb la idea de crear un ésser humà artificial perfecte amb diferents objectius, com ara la companyia o l'ajuda domèstica, i han escrit sobre ells en textos antics de diverses cultures. Això va evolucionar cap a la literatura de protofantasia o protociència-ficció a l’alta edat mitjana. Tanmateix, no va ser fins al segle XIX que la influent obra de Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818), va reunir diferents aspectes de la creació artificial de vida humana artificial en el debat d’una comprensió psicològica social més àmplia. Amb l'arribada dels mitjans audiovisuals al segle XX, aquestes representacions dels humanoides creats artificialment o d'altres creacions amb cert grau de consciència han poblat tant la gran pantalla com la televisió. Aquesta tesi se centra en les connexions socials d'aquestes representacions de la Intel·ligència Artificial, a partir de la sèrie de televisió Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011), així com en les pel·lícules Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) i Her (Spike Jonze, 2014), per tal d’analitzar la relació entre la Intel·ligència Artificial i els humans des de perspectives i paradigmes diversos. L’anàlisi audiovisual de les obres seleccionades és seguida d’una exploració de com s’estan produint aquests recents avenços tecnològics en la nostra societat actual, per relacionar-los amb les advertències que proposen les obres seleccionades i que ofereixen una lectura per al futur que requereix la implementació de normatives estrictes sobre la Intel·ligència Artificial per tal d’alleujar les angoixes humanes respecte a la tecnologia. Paraules clau: Intel·ligència artificial, tecnologia, ciència ficció, distopia, estudis cinematogràfics, societat.<br>La inteligencia artificial es un concepto que fascina a la humanidad durante milenios. Desde la antigüedad, los humanos han estado obsesionados con la idea de crear un humano artificial perfecto para diferentes fines, como la compañía o la ayuda doméstica, y han escrito sobre ello en textos fundacionales de diversas culturas. Esto se convirtió progresivamente en literatura de protofantasía o proto-ciencia ficción en la Alta Edad Media. Sin embargo, no fue hasta el siglo XIX cuando la influyente obra Frankenstein (1818) de Mary Shelley reunió diferentes aspectos de la creación de un ser humano artificial, discutidos dentro de una comprensión psicológica y social más amplia. Con la llegada de los medios audiovisuales en el siglo XX, estas representaciones de humanoides creados artificialmente o de otras creaciones con cierto grado de conciencia han poblado tanto la gran pantalla como la televisión. Esta tesis se centra en las conexiones sociales de dichas representaciones de la Inteligencia Artificial, centrándose en la serie de televisión Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011), así como en las películas Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) y Her (Spike Jonze, 2014), analizando las relaciones entre la Inteligencia Artificial y los humanos desde una variedad de perspectivas y paradigmas diferentes. El análisis audiovisual de las obras seleccionadas va seguido de una exploración sobre cómo estos avances tecnológicos recientes se están produciendo en nuestra sociedad actual, vinculándolos con las advertencias que formulan las obras seleccionadas y ofreciendo una lectura de futuro que requiere la implementación de una estricta normativa en torno a la Inteligencia Artificial para aliviar las ansiedades humanas sobre la tecnología. Palabras clave: inteligencia artificial, tecnología, sociedad, ciencia ficción, distopía, estudios cinematográficos.<br>Artificial Intelligence has been a concept that has infatuated humankind for millennia. Since antiquity, humans have been obsessed with the idea of creating a perfect artificial human for different aims such as companionship or domestic help, and ancient cultures have devoted foundational texts to the artificial human. This literary occupation gradually evolved into proto-fantasy or proto-Science Fiction literature in the early middle ages. However, it wasn’t until the 19th century that Mary Shelley’s influential work Frankenstein (1818) brought together different aspects of creating an artificial human discussed within a broader social and psychological understanding. With the advent of audiovisual media in the 20th century, such representations of artificially created humanoids or other creations with some degree of consciousness have populated both the silver screen and television. This thesis focuses on the societal connections between such representations of Artificial Intelligence, focusing on the TV show Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011) as well as the films Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) and Her (Spike Jonze, 2014) by analyzing the Artificial Intelligence - human relationships from a variety of different perspectives and paradigms. The audiovisual analyses of the selected works are then followed by an examination of how such recent technological developments are taking place in our current society. These texts under examination exhort us to beware the potential dangers of AI technology, which require implementation of strict regulations around the Artificial Intelligence framework in order to alleviate human anxieties about technology. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, technology, technology and society, Science Fiction, dystopia, film studies, society.

La tradition utopique a longtemps entretenu le rêve d'une société idéale située dans un ailleurs, un u-­- topos, le "lieu qui n'est pas" dans L'Utopie de Thomas More. La représentation de ces utopies est indissociable d'un facteur déterminant pour la construction d'un monde meilleur : le progrès. Ainsi, cette tradition se caractérise par l'accent prométhéen d'une telle entreprise, c'est des mains de l'homme que sera façonnée cette nouvelle société. Cependant, le point de vue sur la possibilité d'une société idéale va progressivement s'infléchir, notamment au cours du XIXe siècle, pour s'inverser d'une manière radicale au début du XXe siècle. Nommée anti-­utopie ou contre-­utopie, cette désillusion souligne l'impuissance de l'homme et le rôle ambigu du progrès pour inventer la société parfaite. Parfois utilisée comme synonyme d'anti-­utopie, la dystopie caractérise plus précisément les textes qui décrivent une société dirigée par un système d?oppression absolu, fondé sur un État omnipotent, et presque toujours organisé scientifiquement. Ainsi, des dysfonctionnements de la cité du futur dans Le Monde tel qu'il sera d'Émile Souvestre, en 1846, à l'État Unique dans Nous autres de Evguéni Zamiatine, écrit en 1920, la dystopie évolue en prenant la forme du récit de science-­fiction, et en particulier celle de l'anticipation. Nous verrons, notamment, comment l'utopie prend place dans les oeuvres de Jules Verne et H.G. Wells. Zamiatine, très inspiré par Wells, est le premier grand écrivain du XXe siècle à se servir de la dystopie pour décrire les attributs de la société totalitaire. Ainsi, si notre démarche consiste, dans un premier temps, à désigner les auteurs et textes qui ont participé à l'émergence de la dystopie, notre analyse portera essentiellement sur Nous autres et trois autres romans fondateurs de la dystopie au XXe siècle : Le Meilleur des mondes d'Aldous Huxley, publié en 1932, 1984 de George Orwell, publié en 1948 et Fahrenheit 451 de Ray Bradbury, publié en 1953. Nous étudierons le phénomène totalitaire selon les interprétations qu'en font nos auteurs. Il sera donc question de la collectivisation de l'individu, de la propagande ou du rôle de la science dans l'organisation de la société totalitaire. Mais il s'agira aussi de montrer comment nos dystopies illustrent le combat de l'art contre l'entropie totalitaire, et l'engagement de leurs auteurs dans un véritable discours politique. Enfin, il apparaît essentiel de décrire ce qui apparaît peut-­être comme la forme la plus efficace de la représentation de la dystopie : le film de science-­fiction. Nous verrons pourquoi le roman dystopique peine de plus en plus à soutenir la comparaison face à l'immédiateté du langage de l'image animée<br>The utopian tradition a long time maintained the dream an ideal society located in one elsewhere, a u-­topos, the "place which is not" in the Utopia of Thomas More. The representation of these Utopias is indissociable of a determining factor for the construction of a better world: progress. Thus, this tradition is characterized by the Promethean accent of such a company, they are hands of the man who this new society will be worked. However, the point of view on the possibility of an ideal society gradually will inflect, in particular during the 19th century, to be reversed in a radical way at the beginning of the 20th century. Named anti-­Utopia or against-­Utopia, this disillusion underlines the impotence of the man and the ambiguous role of progress to invent the perfect society. Sometimes used as synonym of anti-­Utopia, the dystopia more precisely characterizes the texts which describe a society directed by an absolute system of oppression, based on an omnipotent State, and almost always scientifically organized. Thus, abnormal operations of the city of the future in The World such as it will be of Emile Souvestre, in 1846, in the State Unique in Us of Evgueni Zamiatine, written in 1920, the dystopia evolves by taking the form of the account of science fiction, and in particular that of anticipation. We will see, in particular, how the Utopia takes seat in works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Zamiatine, very inspired by Wells, is the first great writer of the 20th century to be made use of the dystopia to describe the attributes of the totalitarian society. Thus, if our step consists, initially, to appoint the authors and texts which took part in the emergence of the dystopia, our analysis will primarily carry on Us and three other Romance founders of the dystopia at the 20th century: Brave New World of Aldous Huxley, published into 1932, 1984 of George Orwell, published in 1948 and Fahrenheit 451 of Ray Bradbury, published in 1953. We will study the totalitarian phenomenon according to interpretations that make our authors of them. It will be thus a question of the collectivization of the individual, the propaganda or the role of science in the organization of the totalitarian society. But it will also be a question of showing how our dystopies illustrates the combat of art against the totalitarian entropy, and the engagement of their authors in a true political discourse. Lastly, it appears essential to describe what perhaps appears as the most effective form of the representation of the dystopia: the science fiction film. We will see why the novel dystopic sorrow more and more support the comparison face to the immediacy of the language of the moving image

This thesis is a science fiction exploration of a future dystopian world where privacy becomes a dominant currency that is distributed according to social class and ranking mechanisms. It utilizes speculative world-building to study the unanticipated implications of technology on personal privacy, surveillance and social inequality on future societies. The project introduces The Mall, as a highly efficient and hyper-connected world, but also exposes its downfall as a society with heightened cultural and socio-political disparities. Inspired by past civilizations, the development of the modern nation-state as well as contemporary society, the design adapts, appropriates and reformulates existing cultures into new hybrid possibilities. This thesis project is presented as an illustrated coded tapestry that allows the viewer to explore and interact with various components of the narrative to speculate and critique an alternative future-world void of privacy.

This study focuses on the investigation and deconstruction of the phenomena of the South African dystopian society, as reflected in the novels of Lauren Beukes and films by Neill Blomkamp. The characteristics and signifiers of a uniquely South African dystopian society are established and investigated through a posthuman lens. The theoretical framework of this study is principally concerned with the critical posthuman writings of Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway and, to a lesser extent, Cary Wolfe. Feminism and post-colonialism, and their influences on posthuman theory, are applied as the secondary theoretical framework, in this study. The study is practice led, with the study of the literature serving as mutually informative to the execution of a body of work centred on the dystopian theme. The paintings are intended to be metonyms for the wide range of manifestations of social decline evident in contemporary South African narratives.<br>Arts and Music<br>M.A. (Visual Arts)

碩士<br>淡江大學<br>大眾傳播學系碩士班<br>103<br>Science is the element used to develop the story in science fiction films. It is presented as a masculine element. When the element of dystopia is brought to the narrative discourse of a film, science becomes the fountainhead of a negative future in which the idea of words and ideas as superior is destroyed. This study investigates the backgrounds of heroines from such a background, beginning by analyzing their environments. It then investigates the heroines’ status, how it’s affected by gender issues, and finally their interaction in the film’s narrative as viewed according to feminist ideas. 　　This study selected three prominent sci-fi film series for analysis: “Alien”, “Terminator”, “The Hunger Games”. The study reveals that the concept of dystopia usually emerges in the heroines’ workplaces, which will also show the embodiment of patriarchy restricting the heroines’ behavior. Sometimes the heroines’ appearances are masculinized while they don phallic symbols in the form of weapons, but they can also use their femininity to accomplish their heroic goals, similar to what second-wave feminism would call “androgyny”. In the plots, although the heroines’ looks may be far from standard ideas of beauty, they also can evoke male desire, as well as the image of motherhood, and so romantic love will still often become a key element of such heroines.

The aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive and focused reflection with regard to role of mass media in selected dystopian films, respectively in movies where some significant dystopian elements do appear. This thesis is based on themes that have been the content of bachelor thesis written by the same author and expands on it - however, the bachelor thesis analysed exclusively three novels (Brave New World, 1984 and Fahrenheit 451). Nevertheless this thesis does not include any film adaptation of these novels. Within this work a wider range of resources was employed as it allows highlighting multiple topics associated with the mass media. The main theme is therefore related to the use of mass media and their impact on society. The thesis contains interpretation (from media studies perspective) of a total of 12 films, which are then divided into three categories based on the prevailing perception of the role of mass media. The first part is focused on the mass media as a constitutive element of dystopian regimes. In this case the mass media affect the society as a whole. The second part deals with the films, in which, in which the media significantly influence the lives of specific individuals (although the whole society may not be affected). Finally, the third part includes movies, in...

Héritière de la tradition fantastique borgésienne, imprégnée d’une réalité composée de mythes précolombiens et des résidus industriels de la modernité, et développée à l’ère de la mondialisation, du post-modernisme, des jeux vidéos, du cinéma numérique et d’animation, la tendance cyberpunk latino-américaine est cultivée du Mexique jusqu’en Argentine, en passant par Cuba et d’autres pays souvent méconnus dans le monde de la science-fiction comme le Paraguay et la Bolivie. Pressenti dans les œuvres de certains écrivains canoniques comme Ricardo Piglia, Carmen Boullosa ou Edmundo Paz-Soldán, le cyberpunk se manifeste avec force dans l’écriture de jeunes artistes interdisciplinaires et de collaborateurs assidus des fanzines. Cette adaptation du sous-genre dans un continent où la référence reste encore le réel merveilleux et le réalisme magique, malgré l’apport des générations plus récentes comme celle de « McOndo » ou celle du « Crack », essaie d’élaborer une série de réponses aux questions issues de la conjoncture historique et artistique dans laquelle nous vivons : comment situer l’identité latino-américaine dans la nouvelle cartographie culturelle mondiale à travers une littérature qui cherche à se renouveler par rapport au canon littéraire et à la marginalité de son propre genre? Quelles sont les stratégies d’assimilation et de résistance qu’adoptent des jeunes auteurs latino-américains devant le cyberpunk anglo-américain littéraire et cinématographique? Peut-on parler d’un impact esthétique et philosophique du cyberpunk sur la culture latino-américaine, perçue habituellement comme une consommatrice passive de ces produits culturels et non comme une productrice? Ce travail cherche à parcourir l’ensemble de ces questions à partir d’une réflexion sur les principaux dispositifs constitutifs du cyberpunk – la dystopie et la virtualité – dans les discours (post)identitaires en Amérique Latine. Représentation presque mimétique de l’espace socioculturel et historique latino-américain à travers la violence et la répression politique, militaire, ethnique ou sexuelle, la dystopie est un moyen d’articuler certaines figures spatiales aux mythes nationaux et à la politique identitaire dans le contexte de la mondialisation. Cette dernière réalité socioculturelle, ainsi que l’idéologie esthétique que véhicule celle-ci à travers le cyberpunk, crée un conflit avec ces discours identitaires nationaux, conflit qui est accentué ou dissous par la représentation de la réalité virtuelle. La réalité virtuelle, comprise ici comme la direction que le récit prend pour défaire ou consolider la figure dystopique, mène à réfléchir également sur les enjeux de la (post)identité. Penser à une (post)identité (en gardant bien à l’esprit cette parenthèse) à travers le cyberpunk signifie poser une question sur la résistance au passé identitaire des mythes nationaux, au présent de la mondialisation culturelle, et aux discours post-humanistes qui semblent marquer le futur. À l’appui de travaux sur la dystopie et la réalité virtuelle dans le cyberpunk anglo-américain, ainsi que des études culturelles latino-américaines, je parcourrai un corpus composé des romans écrits entre 1990 et 2005. Ce corpus comprendra La Primera Calle de la Soledad (1993) de Gerardo Horacio Porcayo, Santa Clara Poltergeist (1991) de Fausto Fawcett, Ygdrasil (2005) de Jorge Baradit, et les films argentins No muera sin decirme adónde vas (1992) d’Eliseo Subiela et La sonámbula (1998) de Fernando Spiner. Dans ces oeuvres, la dystopie se configure aux possibilités narratives de la virtualité et traverse des thématiques identitaires comme les mythes sexuels et nationaux, la mémoire et le traumatisme ainsi que les projets utopiques des minorités.<br>Heirs to the tradition of Borgesian fantasy, impregnated by a reality built upon pre-Columbian myths and the industrial residues of modernity, and developed in the age of globalisation, postmodernism, videogames, digital cinema and animation, Latin American cyberpunk is cultivated from Mexico to Argentina, passing through Cuba and other countries not usually recognized in the world of science fiction like Paraguay and Bolivia. Barely perceived in the works of certain canonical writers such as Ricardo Piglia, Carmen Boullosa or Edmundo Paz-Soldán, cyberpunk manifests itself fully in the writings of young interdisciplinary artists and constant fanzine collaborators. This sub-genre adaptation in a continent better known not only for “lo real maravilloso” and magical realism, notwithstanding other more recent generations of writers such as “McOndo” and “Crack”, tries to elaborate a series of responses to questions issued from the historical and artistic moment of contemporary life: how to place Latin American identity within the new worldwide cultural mapping by means of a literature searching to reinvent itself within the mainstream space and the marginality of its own genre? What are the strategies of assimilation and resistance adopted by these young Latin American cyberpunk writers in the face of literary and cinematographic Anglo American cyberpunk? Can one speak of an aesthetic and philosophical impact on Latin American culture, normally perceived not as a producer but rather a passive consumer of this sort of cultural production? This thesis intends to deal with these questions in reflecting on one of the constituent devices of cyberpunk: dystopia in conjunction with post-identitary discourses in Latin America. An almost mimetic representation of Latin America’s sociocultural and historical space through violence and political, military ethnic or sexual repression, dystopia is a means to articulate certain spatial figures in national myths and identity politics within the context of globalisation. This latter sociocultural reality, along with the aesthetic ideology that conveys it throughout cyberpunk, enters in conflict with those discourses of national identity, leading us to reflect on post-identity issues. Relying on works on dystopia and identity in Anglo American cyberpunk, as well as on Latin American cultural studies, I will peruse a corpus made up of the novels La primera calle de la soledad (1993) by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo, Santa Clara Poltergeist (1991) by Fausto Fawcett, Ygdrasil (2005) by Jorge Baradit, and the films No muera sin decirme adónde vas (1992) by Eliseo Subiela and La sonámbula (1998) by Fernando Spiner. In these works, dystopia meshes with virtual reality narratives and covers aspects of the identity such as national and sexual myths, memory, trauma as well as minorities utopian projects.

This thesis examines TV series adaptation as a type of intersemiotic translation. Proposing an interdisciplinary approach to adaptations, it combines methods of translation studies, film theory, narratology, and adaptation studies. The thesis analyses the translation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale into the first season of its TV series namesake. While using Katerina Perdikaki's translation/adaptation model, it studies and interprets the shifts that occur during the adaptation process. Applying hypotheses by Linda Hutcheon, it focuses on the film means used in the TV series to express meanings narrated in the novel (such as dialogues, voice-over, sound and soundtrack, types of camera shots, camera angles and movement, editing, colours, depth of field, light, narrative and story time, actors, or misanscene).

"Digital narratives are emerging as key platforms for the study of the posthuman in the 21st century. In Tron: Legacy the exploration of cyberspace and its miraculous properties as a vacuum for the mythological unconscious reignites the imagination, transporting viewers to a universe without borders. Both film and cyberspace open us up to worlds past, present and future, internal and external, imbuing us with their magic as well as their terror; danger becomes integral to the establishment of digital space as ‘sublime dreaming space’, as we witness the breakdown of dualities and the unearthing of a pervasive schizophrenia. This ‘inverted’ condition forces us to question the nature of reality and its perceived stability. The disparity between the virtual dream and material world is a natural state in which the fight for visibility and integration of multiple identities unfolds, revealing it as the essential project of postmodernism. In Tron cosmology both the mechanical and biological body preserve their integrities – digital ontology not only informs but restores the dormant potential of the corporeal, with the cyborgic figure of the ‘ISO’ presented as a blueprint for the cellular and cognitive regeneration of our species. Its inherent subversive qualities defy an empiricist legacy and encroaching self-denying egoism. This is the re-mythologisation, re-sacralisation and re-centring of our known worlds. The framing of Tron: Legacy as a creation myth reasserts the relevance of apocalypse and sacrifice in the contemporary imaginary, as cyberspace becomes a recreation of the universe itself and a womb for the collective. Ultimately, this father-son story of love and loss beckons the re-evaluation of our personal relationships, reaching for our humanity in an increasingly mechanised world. Its characters’ redemption mirrors the psychosocial absolution of a whole civilisation and the rebirth of humankind."--Abstract.

<div> <p>The idea of “the book” overflows with extraneous significance: books are presented as windows, gateways, vessels, lighthouses, and gardens. Books speak to us and feed us, and they are a method of escape. The book has long represented much more than a static, hinged, bound, covered object inscribed with words. Even when a book is not performing an elaborate, imaginative function, the word “book” very often signifies the text it holds or even the text’s author: You can open <i>The Bluest Eye</i> or carry Toni Morrison in your bag. Fourteenth-century author Geoffrey Chaucer invokes a “book” by “Lollius” as authoritative source of his<i> Troilus and Criseyde</i>, though no person exists; likewise, to conclude the same text, Chaucer asks directs his project to “go, litel bok, go.” When a book makes an appearance in narrative, it is rarely j<i>ust a book</i>—without legs, the book moves, and without breath, it lives. This dissertation asks what about the shape of the codex has helped the book become such a metaphorically rich signifier.<br></p> <p>This dissertation attempts to unravel the various threads of meaning that make up the complex “idea of the book.” I focus on one of these threads: the book as a material object. By focusing on how the book as object—not the book as idea—functions within narrative, I argue that we can identify what about the book object enables its metaphorical range. I analyze moments in literature, television, and film when metaphorical functions are assigned, not to an ephemeral, complex idea of the book, but rather to the material realities of the book as an object. In these moments, the codex’s essential, material shape (what I am calling its bookishness) enables metaphorical functioning; I show that, by examining when mundanely physical bindings, pages, covers, and spines initiate metaphorical action, we can identify how the material book has come to mean so much more than itself.</p> <p><a></a>Indeed, despite a renewed appreciation for the book as both material and cultural object, books have become so significantly meaningful that attempts to define “the book” evade simplicity, rendering books as everything and nothing at the same time. My inquire explores this complexity by starting with a simple premise: Metaphors are based on some element of physical truth. Though the book has sprouted in a variety of metaphorical directions, many of those metaphors are grounded in the book’s material realities. Acknowledging this, especially in an age of fast-evolving media and bookish fetishism, offers a valuable and novel perspective on how and why books are both semantically rich and culturally valued objects.</p> </div> <br>