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威廉·吉布森赛博朋克小说中的科技异化探讨

日期:2023年10月23日 编辑:ad201107111759308692 作者:无忧论文网 点击次数:576
论文价格:300元/篇 论文编号:lw202310201019127790 论文字数:32522 所属栏目:英语文学论文
论文地区:中国 论文语种:English 论文用途:硕士毕业论文 Master Thesis

本文是一篇英语文学论文,本文选取吉布森经典的赛博朋克小说:“蔓生”三部曲和短篇小说集《全息玫瑰碎片》为研究对象,借助了法兰克福学派赫伯特·马尔库塞的科技异化理论,分别从科技异化下的单向度社会、科技异化下的单向度的人和人类摆脱科技控制的探索三个角度对小说中的科技异化现象进行深入研究。

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 William Gibson and His Cyberpunk Novels

英语文学论文怎么写

As an emerging literary genre, science fiction is more than an imaginative vision or a simple prediction of the future, it also serves as a powerful metaphor for the present. Using scientific language, authors visualize people’s lives from a prophetic perspective, as well as explore the relationship between human beings and society. SF encourages readers to reflect on current social issues and think about the development of technology in the future. 

SF was born in the 18th century as a result of the rapid development of science and technology. The 19th century was a development epoch for SF and a number of masters of SF came to the fore during this period, such as Jules Verne and H.G.Wells, etc. The 1950s were a golden era for the development of SF. During this period, Alfred Bester, A. C. Clarke and other founding fathers of SF wrote articles for two famous SF magazines Amazing Stories and Astounding. Many classic SF novels were also published during this time. In the 1960s, the British SF novelist Christopher Priest used the new wave “for an sf almost equally disruptive, existentially fraught and formally daring, that evolved around the British sf magazine New Worlds in the mid to late 1960s” (Broderick 50) and had been recognized by many SF writers. SF of this period began to avoid traditional themes and focus on the relationship between man and technology. In the 1980s, cyberpunk emerged as the latest evolution of SF. 

1.2 Marcuse and His Theory of Technology Alienation

Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) was a German-American philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School. Marcuse was known for his radical critical theory among the classic Western Marxist writers. In his writings, he criticized capitalism, modern technology, and entertainment culture. His representative works include Eros and Civilization (1955), One-Dimensional Man (1964) and Counter-Revolution and Revolt (1972), etc. And the most influential and representative one was One-Dimensional Man, in which he systematically expounded his technology alienation theory. Marcuse believed that technology had created an affluent industrial society with abundant material resources. Technology, however, did not bring mankind freedom and liberation, but enslaved them to production and consumption. He criticized that technology had deprived people of their sense of rebellion and made them submissive to the existing system, creating one-dimensional men and a one-dimensional society.

Engels points out that theoretical thinking, including our own, is a product of history. At different times, it takes on totally different forms and contains entirely different contents. (Wang Siqing 8) Marcuse lived in turbulent times. He witnessed people’s suffering during the three industrial revolutions and two world wars, and he was eager to make a difference. His theory of technology alienation was also born during this turbulent period. 

CHAPTER TWO THE ONE-DIMENSIONAL SOCIETY UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY ALIENATION

2.1 Social Aspect: Technology Is Power

Marcuse claims that “the prevailing forms of social control are technological in a new sense” (ODM 11). In traditional industrial societies, people have been primarily subordinated to the state apparatus, which is both productive and destructive. Often, this has been accompanied by coercion, including the use of the armed forces and police. However, the developed industrial society “distinguishes itself by conquering the centrifugal social forces with Technology rather than Terror” (xl). Modern society controls and manages human beings in a different way, which does not rely on laws, prisons and other state apparatuses. People live in a zone controlled and monitored by the network du