Original scientific paper
Emotional constructs of the future in the SF novels The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy by Stanisław Lem and The Invention of Athanatik by Vladan Desnica
Kornelija Kuvač-Levačić
; University of Zadar
Abstract
The paper comparatively investigates two science fiction novels: The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy (1971) by the Polish writer Stanisław Lem and The Invention of Athanatik (1975) by the Croatian writer Vladan Desnica. This paper will explore the textual constructions of emotions as parts of the dystopian perspective of the future that they have in common. Namely, contemporary constructivist approaches to emotions show that they are an important part of cognitive processes and that they are culturally conditioned entities. Starting from genre theories (Suvin, Šakić, Clute and Nicholls) and cultural, cognitivist and constructivist approaches to emotions (Lutz; Mesquita and Frijda; Hogan; Ekman and Cordaro; Ahmed; Damasio) and applying them in the analysis of literary texts, it will be proved that the emotional constructs of the future can be considered within the fundamental genre characteristics of science fiction. This means that they participate in the creation of a conceptual breakthrough in the paradigms of the current episteme, that they are parts of cognitive astonishment, i.e. a fictional novum valued by cognitive logic, and that their thematization within science fiction can contribute to the knowledge of the possible effects of cultural conditioning of emotions, as well as deepening knowledge about the genre characteristics of modern science fiction.
Keywords
emotionology; science fiction; emotional constructs of the future; Stanisław Lem; Vladan Desnica
Hrčak ID:
309959
URI
Publication date:
20.11.2023.
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