Cyberpunk Science Fiction and Postmodern Aesthetics: A Critical Approach

Abstract

Postmodern theory and aesthetics have become a frequently discussed phenomenon in almost every field, especially since the 1980s. However, this theory and aesthetics appear with a significant effect, especially in the field of literature and art. Cinema has a special place here. Postmodern aesthetics still maintains its existence by increasing its effectiveness in cinema. One of the factors that put this aesthetic in the focus of current discussions is undoubtedly the contributions of science fiction genre, which has increased its effectiveness and popularity with technology, to this aesthetics. Science fiction literature is a field that offers tools to postmodern aesthetics that can approach the existing system both critically and affirmatively. However, science fiction literature, as a whole, does not do this, cyberpunk as a subgenre within this field does this: cyberpunk provides texts, perspectives to postmodern aesthetics for criticizing the system, or the establishment. But how critical are these critical perspectives? Does this subgenre really criticize the system in which it was born, or does it subtly glorify it? In this study, the answers to these questions are tried to be given based on the critical thoughts of very important writers of the Western world, Fredric Jameson and György Lukacs. Since science fiction and its subgenre cyberpunk are such a wide field, this study focuses only on William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, who played a decisive role in the emergence and popularization of this subgenre and examined the characteristic features of the dystopian background of this subgenre using the descriptive research methodology. This study differs from previous studies as it deals with the contributions of Gibson and Sterling to postmodern aesthetics through the critical perspectives of Lukacs and Jameson.

Keywords

• Science Fiction
• Literature
• Art
• Cyberpunk
• Postmodernism

Siber Punk Bilim Kurgu ve Postmodern Estetik: Eleştirel Bir Yaklaşım

Abstract

Postmodern kuram ve estetik özellikle 1980’li yıllardan bu yana hemen her alanda sıkça tartışılan bir olgu haline gelmiştir. Ancak bu kuram ve estetik özellikle edebiyat ve sanat alanında belirgin bir etkiyle karşımıza çıkar. Burada sinema özel bir yere sahiptir. Postmodern estetik sinemada etkinliğini arttırarak bugün hala varlığını korumaktadır. Bu estetiği güçlü bir şekilde güncel tartışmaların odağına oturtan etmenlerden biri kuşkusuz teknolojiyle birlikte etkinliği ve popülaritesi artan bilim kurgu türünün bu estetiğe yapmış olduğu katkılardır. Bilim kurgu edebiyatı postmodern estetiğe, varolan sisteme hem eleştirel hem de olumlayıcı anlamda yaklaşabilen araçlar sunan bir alandır. Ancak bir bütün olarak bilim kurgu edebiyatı bunu yapmaz, bu alanın içerisinde bir alt tür olarak siber punk bunu yapar: Siber punk postmodern estetiğe sistemi eleştiren metinler, perspektifler sağlar. Ancak bu eleştirel perspektifler ne kadar eleştireldir? Bu alt tür gerçekten içinde doğduğu sistemi eleştirmekte midir, yoksa onu alttan alta yüceltmekte midir? Bu soruların cevabı bu çalışmada Fredric Jameson ve György Lukacs gibi Batı dünyasının çok önemli yazarlarının eleştirel düşüncelerinden yola çıkılarak verilmeye çalışılmaktadır. Çalıma, bilim kurgu ve onun alt türü siber punk çok geniş bir alan olduğundan ötürü, bu alt türün ortaya çıkışında ve popüler hale gelişinde belirleyici rol oynayan sadece William Gibson ve Bruce Sterling’e odaklanmakta, bu alt türün distopik arka planının karakteristik özellikleri tanımlayıcı araştırma yöntemi kullanılarak incelemektedir. Bu çalışma Gibson ve Sterling’in postmodern estetiğe yaptığı katkıları Lukacs ve Jameson’ın eleştirel perspektifleri aracılığıyla ele aldığı için daha önceki çalışmalardan farklılaşmaktadır.

Keywords

• Bilim Kurgu
• Edebiyat
• Sanat
• Siberpunk
• Postmodernizm

References

1. Bear, G. (1985). Blood music. Arbor House.
2. Best, S., & Kellner, D. (1991). Postmodern theory: Critical interrogations. The Guilford Press.
3. Bethke, B. (2021a, January 11). Cyberpunk – A short story by Bruce Bethke. http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/cpunk.htm
4. Bethke, B. (2021b, January 15). Cyberpunk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk
5. Bukatman, S. (1995). Who programs you? The science fiction of the spectacle. In A. Kuhn (Ed.). Alien zone–Cultural theory and contemporary science fiction cinema. Verso.
6. Bukatman, S. (2021, May 16). Postcards from the posthuman solar system. http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/55/bukatman55art.htm
7. Connor, S. (1997). Postmodernist culture: An introduction to theories of the contemporary (2ndEdition). Blackwell Publishers.
8. Csicserry-Ronay, I. (1993). Cyberpunk and neoromanticism. In L. McCaffery (Ed.). Storming the reality studio –A casebook of cyberpunk and postmodern science fiction. Duke University Press.

9. Dick, P. K. (1999). Do androids dream of electric sheep. Millennium.
10. Gibson, W. (1986). Count zero. Arbor House
11. Gibson, W. (1988). Monalisa overdrive. Bantham.
12. Gibson, W. (1993). Neuromancer. Harper Collins Publisher.
13. Habermas, J. (1987). Modernity: An incomplete project. In H. Foster (Ed.). The anti aesthetic: Essays on postmodern culture. Bay Press.
14. Harvey, D. (1992). The condition of postmodernity: An enquiry into the origins of cultural change. Blackwell.
15. Hassan, I. (1983). The dismemberment of orpheus: Towards a postmodern literature. University of Wisconsin Press.
16. Heidegger, M. (2008). Being and time (Trans. J. Macquarie & E. Robinson). Harper Perennial Modern Thought.
17. Hollinger, V. (1993). Cybernetic deconstructions: Cyberpunk and postmodernism. In L. McCaffery (Ed.). Storming the reality studio –A casebook of cyberpunk and postmodern science fiction. Duke University Press.
18. Jameson, F. (1974). The prison-house of language: A critical account of structuralism and Russian formalism. Princeton University Press.
19. Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism. Duke University Press.
20. Jameson, F. (1998). The cultural turn: Selected writings on the postmodern 1983-1998. Verso.
21. Kadrey, R., & McCaffery, L. (1993). Cyberpunk 101: A schematic guide to. In L. McCaffery (Ed.). Storming the reality studio –A casebook of cyberpunk and postmodern science fiction. Duke University Press.
22. Leary, T. (1993). The Cyberpunk: The individual as reality pilot. In L. McCaffery (Ed.). Storming the reality studio –A casebook of cyberpunk and postmodern science fiction. Duke University Press.
23. Lukacs, G. (1969). The meaning of contemporary realism. Merlin Press.
24. Lukacs, G. (1974). Theory of the novel. The MIT Press.
25. Lyotard, J. F. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. Manchester University Press.
26. Maddox, T. (2021, January 18). After the deluge: Cyberpunk in the ‘80s and ‘90s. http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberpunk_in_80-90.html
27. Mandel, E. (1980). Late capitalism. (Trans. J. De Bres). Verso.
28. Marcuse, H. (1991). One dimensional man: Studies in the ideology of advanced industrial society (2nd Edition). Routledge.
29. McCaffery, L. (1993a). Introduction: The desert of the real. In L. McCaffery (Ed.). Storming the reality studio –A casebook of cyberpunk and postmodern science fiction. Duke University Press.
30. McCaffery, L. (1993b). An interview with William Gibson. In L. McCaffery (Ed.). Storming the reality studio –A casebook of cyberpunk and postmodern science fiction. Duke University Press.
31. McHale, B. (1993). POSTcyberMODERNpunkISM. In L. McCaffery (Ed.). Storming the reality studio –A casebook of cyberpunk and postmodern science fiction. Duke University Press.
32. Penley, C. (1995). Time travel, primal scene and the critical dystopia. In A. Kuhn (Ed.). Alien zone cultural theory and contemporary science fiction cinema. Verso.
33. Person, L. (2021, May 14). Notes toward a Postcyberpunk manifesto. https://www.scribd.com/document/463211695/Notes-Toward-a-Postcyberpunk-Manifesto
34. Shiner, L. (1984). Frontera. Baen.
35. Shirley, J. (1986). Eclipse. Methuen.
36. Shirley, J. (2021, January 18). Two Cyberpunks: Sterling & Rucker. http://www.darkeche.com/JohnShirley/sterling.html
37. Sterling, B. (1985). Schismatrix. Arbor House.
38. Sterling, B. (2000). Zeitgeist. Bantham Books.
39. Sterling, B. (2005). The Zenith angel. Del Rey.
40. Sterling, B. (2021, January 15). Cyberpunk in the nineties. http://www.streettech.com/bcp/BCPtext/Manifestos/CPInThe90s.html
41. Suvin, D. (1993). On Gibson and Cyberpunk SF. In L. McCaffery (Ed.). Storming the reality studio –A casebook of cyberpunk and postmodern science fiction. Duke University Press.
42. Vattimo, G. (1988). The end of modernity –Nihilism and Hermeneutics in postmodern culture (Trans. J. R. Snyder). Polity Press.
43. Wikipedia (2021, January 18). Bruce Sterling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Sterling.