Utopias of Thought, Dystopias of Space: Science Fiction in Contemporary Peninsular Narrative

• Main Author: Divine, Susan Marie
• Other Authors: Compitello, Malcolm A.
• Language: EN
• Published: The University of Arizona. 2009
• Subjects: Dystopia; Madrid; Science Fiction; Spain; Urban Geography; Utopia
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195666

This study serves as an introduction to three recent narratives in Spanish Science Fiction. While this literary genre has long been read in Spain in translation, it is only recently that Sci-Fi has been successful as a popular literature produced by native authors. Álex de la Iglesia, Gabriela Bustelo and Rafael Reig have worked in realist and genre fiction through their careers but chose to use Science Fiction to speak of the rapidly changing space of Madrid. Their criticism is centered on the changes to the physical, social, economic and political landscape of Madrid post-1992. My analysis is based on the works of the geographer David Harvey, among others, which helps to underline the importance of the urbanization of capital and consciousness that the three narratives disentangle. While being three very different texts - one film and two novels -, they all manipulate concerns of time and space to come to a similar conclusion. Their narratives serve as a warning about how the good intentions of humanist theories like feminism or scientific advancement can easily turn into a nightmare by instead serving the needs of capitalism rather than those of social justice.