Civilization and Its (Dys)contents

Savagery, Technological Progress and Capitalism in Industrial and Information Dystopias

Abstract

The figure of Prometheus – depicted as both a benefactor of human civilization and an instigator of retribution as a result of hubris – emblemizes the double-edged nature of technological progress. Modern concern about whether technology contributes to the advancement of human civilization or if it represents dehumanization has become a hallmark of the dystopian genre. Such a premise beckons the question as to whether dystopian literature pits humanity against technology in order to criticize technological progress and the extent to which such dystopias are inherently anti-progress, especially due to such novels' fetishization of 'savagery', a world uncorrupted by civilization and its technologies. By examining critical theory and the representation of technology in dystopian literature written during the Industrial Age and the Information Age, which I respectively label as 'industrial dystopias' and 'information dystopias', this dissertation aims to explore the relationship between technology and humanity, looking at the the transition from the mechanized-self to the quantified-self in industrial and information dystopias and how each novel (re)negotiates the relationship between technology and humanity at two different points of radical technological transformation in human civilization. This dissertation will ultimately argue that dystopian literature about technology is not an indictment of technological progress but a criticism of technological utopianism when embedded within the logic of capitalism.