¹University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Eau Claire, WI, USA

Correspondence: Stacy Thompson, Critical Theory and Cinema Studies, English Department, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 105 Garfield Avenue PO Box 4004, Eau Claire, WI 54702-4004, USA E-mail: thompssr@uwec.edu

Abstract

In this essay, I argue that it is in the cultural domain of science fiction that social desires repressed in politics and economics are still proposed and enjoyed. Specifically, I consider science fictional attempts to imagine non-capitalist futures that are qualitatively better than our present. From the filmic and fictional texts that I examine, two conclusions emerge. First, utopian science fiction often betrays a fear that the libidinal economy of the individual correlates better with capitalism than with non-capitalist options for organizing collective desires. Second, utopian narratives frequently exaggerate an element of a post-apocalyptic capitalism in order to traverse the fantasy of an economic order that can survive the apocalypse.