L'immagine della città del futuro nella letteratura distopica della prima metà del '900
- Autores: Daniele Porretta
- Directores de la Tesis: Juan José Lahuerta Alsina (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) ( España ) en 2014
- Idioma: italiano
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Antonio Pizza de Nanno (presid.), Ramon Cugat Faura Coll (secret.), Kathrin Golda Pongratz (voc.)
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
The contemporary city, threatened by uncontrolled population growth and the rapid increase of poverty, is not the only possible scenario for future wars and ecological collapse but seems also to have become the catalyst for a collective fear: the topos of final disaster. The negative image of this future, as represented by literature and film, seems to refer to an older iconographic repertoire and often, this decadent representation of the city, matches with the pessimistic visions of the late-Victorian literature. The ruins of the industrial cities like Detroit, today converted into archaeological areas, remind us the grandeur of the ancient capitals of fallen empires. This essay analyses some of the mechanisms that led to the transformation of the contemporary city using the different scenarios that literature has used to represent its negative and distorted future. Repeatedly, the history of architecture has speculated on the importance of the relationship between Utopía and urban space. On the contrary, Dystopia, a literary genre born in the late nineteenth century and used to describe unwanted and aberrant societies of the future, seems to have been consigned to the marginal role of mass entertainment. lnstead, the dystopian genre offers interesting resources to understand the present. Nowadays in Western culture, Dystopia seems to have definitely replaced Utopia as a way to reflect upon the present. This research undertakes a historical journey through the rise and fall of the myth of progress. lt analyses the city of the future through literary works. The first part is concemed with the creation of the image of the future city, thoroughly transformed by scientific and technological achievements. This phase begins with the publication of "New Atlantis'', by Francis Bacon (1621), and finishes with "Les cinq cents millions de la Begum", by J. Veme (1879). The literature of the last two decades of the twentieth century is characterized, instead, by darker views. The myth of progress, built by the bourgeoisie, is gradually eclipsed by the fear of the class conflict outbreak, the demographic boom and the decline of the old colonial empires. Science and technology cease to play a positive, utopian role to become potentially destructive forces. This is the moment when the literary representation of the future city moves from a positive view of the technological achievements towards a negative one, from utopía to totalitarian dystopia. lt is during the 1920's with the publication of 'We", by Y. Zamjatin, that modern dystopia starts. This novel, set in a completely transparent city, anticipates the birth of an invisible power whose aim is the total control of citizen's lives. As well as utopia embodies collective desires and hopes through certain urban models, dystopia has its own ways to embody fears and nightmares. To this literary genre corresponds a precise type of city, thoroughly restrained, segregated and hierarchical. Besides Dystopia is also a caricature of the Utopia of Organization. Dystopian cities are designed as a result of a critical analysis of the new approaches of urbanism, born out of the ashes of the French Revolution. In this belief system, Architecture is seen as a "bio-political technology", a "devise to produce individuals", so as to improve humankind through mind control and physical conditioning.
