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Article

French

ID: <

2268/79560

>

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Future perfect and counterfactual precedents: Dystopia as a way to thwart threats

Abstract

Traditionally regarded as a mere critical inversion of utopia, dystopia will be characterized here as an instance of a more general critical posture, through the concepts of ‘future perfect’ and ‘counterfactual precedent’. The future perfect belongs to, but differs from the logics of alert in its temporal modalities and use of fiction: the dystopian future is described as having already happened in the actuality of the narrative present, in a paradoxical gesture which aims to conjure up the threat in the recipient’s representational space only to thwart it. The cases examined are taken from the issue of new technologies of surveillance and social control, which challenged stakeholders to update their critical reference points and anticipation skills over the last twenty years. An analysis in terms of the future perfect enables us to understand the swing of configurations: Big Brother is now downgraded as a ‘counterfactual precedent’ compared to the new threats posed by ‘societies of control’. In addition, the similar way these fictional patterns and figures operate points to a cognitive (the articulation between the real and the possible worlds accessed by anticipation) as well as a pragmatic dimension (empowering the political community to envision a new future). By the end of the analysis, fiction appears as both a mode of knowledge and a handle on the world.

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