Social and Philosophical Ideas through Heterotopia: Asimov, Dick and Mieville
Abstract
The analysis of three science fiction novels: Isaac Asimov’s “The Gods Themselves” (1972), Philip Kindred Dick’s “Ubik” (1966) and China Mieville’s “The City & the City” (2009) strives to uncover structural parallelisms and the inherent evolution in their development, plot structuring and presentation. It is centered on the exhibited relation to the structure and general mechanics of space. The interpretations of space are based on Michel Foucault’s heterotopias, the rhizome of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, and Michel de Certeau’s absent space, which show how the active force of space and the complexity of the genre identity are interconnected, and how they interact with the social and philosophical engagement of the works and their wider cultural context. These prominent works of American and British science fiction provide a rich source material for an outline of the process of interplay of genre identity and socio-philosophical engagement, and an overview of how this interplay affects their plot, style and the protagonists.