Representing Life, representing power: a comparative approach to contemporary biopolitics through the works of Gonçalo M. Tavares, Ken Macleod and Bret Easton Ellis.

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Representing Life, Resisting Power: a Comparative Approach to Contemporary Biopolitics Through the Lenses of Gonçalo M. Tavares, Francesco Verso, Ken Macleod, and Suzanne Collins

Publication . Furão, Igor Gonçalo Grave Abraços; Araújo, Susana Isabel Arsénio Nunes Costa; Cavalletti, Andrea; Soeiro, Ricardo Gil Costa Fonseca

In this thesis I explore through literary texts new perspectives on the biopolitical devices and discourses that permeate contemporary western societies. To this end, I examine their representations in Jerusalem, A Man: Klaus Klump, and Joseph Walser’s Machine, by Gonçalo M. Tavares, in “Fernando Morales, This Is Your Death!”, The Walkers, and Nexhuman, by Francesco Verso, in Intrusion and The Execution Channel, by Ken MacLeod, and in The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins. I start from the idea that by the beginning of the 21st century, bios and polis, life and politics have become almost completely juxtaposed, and that although the body is submitted to a constant and ubiquitous control, its materiality also constitutes a site of resistance. I go on to assess through a comparative analysis the connections and the differences between the selected novels of these four writers, with the intention of understanding how their dystopian aesthetics and essayistic dimension may potentiate a discussion on current social-political and economic problems that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. I likewise consider in what ways the fictional worlds of the characters in these works can provide us valuable insights regarding the devices and discourses through which political and economic powers govern human life. Ultimately, I try to shed some light on cultural phenomena, such as an increasing medicalization of society, the spectacularization of everyday, or the disposability of human life, which are becoming increasingly common in contemporary western societies and have profoundly changed the relationships between people and institutions at a global level. In this way the present thesis hopes to make a small, yet significant, contribution to our understanding of a politics that now encompasses virtually every sphere of human life.

2021-07-12Tese de doutoramento

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Entidade financiadora

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Programa de financiamento

OE

Número da atribuição

PD/BD/113724/2015