Welcome to Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art,

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2016, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (1): 112-119.

• Issue in Focus: Science Fiction Studies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Deconstructing Utopian Imagination: The Allegory of Solaris and Others

Chen Dan   

  1. the Department of Chinese, East China Normal University (Shanghai 200241, China)
  • Online:2016-01-25 Published:2017-09-22
  • About author:Chen Dan is a postgraduate student in the Department of Chinese, East China Normal University (Shanghai 200241, China), with research focus on literary theory.

Abstract: Utopia is a socio-economic sub-genre of science fiction. The question of how to imagine a utopia is actually an issue of how to write out the image of a utopia. In Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, there is a formal strategy of "double inscription," which turns the limitation of utopian genre into allegory and critical merits. Thus, it is possible to refute it from the inside of its anthropocentric totality and to divert the interpretation into the field of political ethics. As a result, the surface binary opposition between self and the other is nullified, and the imagination of a zero-degree Utopia, with minimum requirements, falls prey to the practical power field of ideology. It is in this sense that Stanislaw Lem's skepticism deconstructs the utopian imagination.

Key words: archaeology of the future, Utopia, Solaris, the structure of allegory, deconstruction