Speculative fiction: dystopias between the local and the global

Abstract

According to Donna Haraway’s definitions, we understand science fiction as a speculative artifact that allows us to think of a present that is absent, but possible, among the ruins of a present that is impossible, but real. In the last two decades, there has been an expansion of fictional discourses, globalized audiovisual series as local literary productions, inscribed in a dystopian mode of science fiction, but also in fantasy and other forms of alternate worlds creation. In many of these discourses, human reproduction in its biological sense takes a central place. We will approach a number of audiovisual fictions (series), globally distributed (The Handmaid's Tale, The House of the Dragon, Helix, Orphan Black, Westworld) in dialogue with local literary productions such as Cadáver Exquisito (Exquisite Corpse), Episodios de cacería (Hunting Episodes), Distancia de rescate (Rescue Distance), all from the last decade (2013-2023). The discussion on the material and affective configuration of a body as human travels through genres, discourses and geographical and time frontiers to bring light on dystopian zones of the extratextual present of our experiences. The stories we will analyze revolve around the topic of human body (re)production as a conflict between technology and humanity, copy and repetition, individual and State, nature (environment) and technology (capitalist production) showing the sharpest faces of their confrontation, pointing at the same time that those dystopian extremes are already here, in the impossible present of our existence.