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Papers by Kerri Beauchesne Miller

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, Mar 2013

In this thesis, I argue that a new, ambitious variety of literary utopia, which I call an ecosyst... more In this thesis, I argue that a new, ambitious variety of literary utopia, which I call an ecosystem utopia, has developed over the past forty years, chiefly in science fiction and fantasy. My primary examples are Paul McAuley’s novels The Quiet War and Gardens of the Sun. An ecosystem utopia portrays a dynamic network of societies in a text’s fictional time and space. Like a traditional utopia, it explores the structure and functioning of individual utopias, and like the critical utopia, their flaws and ambiguities. Sociopolitically complex, it explores threads of influence, alliance, conflict, exploitation, and dominance within and between multiple societies. To analyze such a complex system, I have created a hybrid methodology, econet criticism, which blends ecology with a variant of Actor-Network Theory to analyze individual utopias and trace their interactions. This is an exploratory work, a first step toward developing a new way of conceiving and analyzing utopia.

In his 1988 essay "Cognitive Mapping," Fredric Jameson ponders, without solution, what shape the ... more In his 1988 essay "Cognitive Mapping," Fredric Jameson ponders, without solution, what shape the aesthetics of late capitalism might take (476). If we accept his premise that cultural repressions (ideologies and their consequences) return in coded form within the art of the age, much as personal repressions are condensed into the manifest content of dreams (470), then the identification of our era's particular aesthetic would help us to diagnose and perhaps treat our cultural neuroses -or, in Marxist terms, to identify and interrogate the ideologies that ensnare us in order to achieve relative autonomy (Althusser 456). This is a problem with some urgency, given the alienation of virtually all subjects from the ever larger and more complex multinational structures we inhabit. It is a question not merely of cognitively mapping our place in the world but of continuing to peel back layers of misrecognition (Lacan's méconnaissance) to render visible the sorts of injustices that thrive in anonymity. Thus, cognitive mapping is situated within the larger utopian project of socially conscious scholarship. Jameson suggests that Bertolt Brecht's concept of the "alienation effect," or A-effect, will play a significant role in late capitalist art (Jameson 468). The A-effect, initially an acting technique but more broadly a life technique, resists the tendency of realist theater to tranquilize the audience into passive, uncritical acceptance of a play's assumptions (Brecht 443, 446).

Our concept of the literary canon in English has undergone several major upheavals, expanding ove... more Our concept of the literary canon in English has undergone several major upheavals, expanding over time to accommodate genres, authors, and themes that have gained cachet in the field. This paper argues that the time has come for science fiction to take its place in the canon, particulary in anthologies used in survey courses.

This paper explores the treatment of science fiction in college classrooms past, present, and fut... more This paper explores the treatment of science fiction in college classrooms past, present, and future.

This paper uses Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of carnival to analyze the movie 'Idiocracy' by Mike Jud... more This paper uses Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of carnival to analyze the movie 'Idiocracy' by Mike Judge, which leads to a discussion of ways in which carnival is transformed in a late-capitalist, media-rich society.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, Mar 2013

In this thesis, I argue that a new, ambitious variety of literary utopia, which I call an ecosyst... more In this thesis, I argue that a new, ambitious variety of literary utopia, which I call an ecosystem utopia, has developed over the past forty years, chiefly in science fiction and fantasy. My primary examples are Paul McAuley’s novels The Quiet War and Gardens of the Sun. An ecosystem utopia portrays a dynamic network of societies in a text’s fictional time and space. Like a traditional utopia, it explores the structure and functioning of individual utopias, and like the critical utopia, their flaws and ambiguities. Sociopolitically complex, it explores threads of influence, alliance, conflict, exploitation, and dominance within and between multiple societies. To analyze such a complex system, I have created a hybrid methodology, econet criticism, which blends ecology with a variant of Actor-Network Theory to analyze individual utopias and trace their interactions. This is an exploratory work, a first step toward developing a new way of conceiving and analyzing utopia.

In his 1988 essay "Cognitive Mapping," Fredric Jameson ponders, without solution, what shape the ... more In his 1988 essay "Cognitive Mapping," Fredric Jameson ponders, without solution, what shape the aesthetics of late capitalism might take (476). If we accept his premise that cultural repressions (ideologies and their consequences) return in coded form within the art of the age, much as personal repressions are condensed into the manifest content of dreams (470), then the identification of our era's particular aesthetic would help us to diagnose and perhaps treat our cultural neuroses -or, in Marxist terms, to identify and interrogate the ideologies that ensnare us in order to achieve relative autonomy (Althusser 456). This is a problem with some urgency, given the alienation of virtually all subjects from the ever larger and more complex multinational structures we inhabit. It is a question not merely of cognitively mapping our place in the world but of continuing to peel back layers of misrecognition (Lacan's méconnaissance) to render visible the sorts of injustices that thrive in anonymity. Thus, cognitive mapping is situated within the larger utopian project of socially conscious scholarship. Jameson suggests that Bertolt Brecht's concept of the "alienation effect," or A-effect, will play a significant role in late capitalist art (Jameson 468). The A-effect, initially an acting technique but more broadly a life technique, resists the tendency of realist theater to tranquilize the audience into passive, uncritical acceptance of a play's assumptions (Brecht 443, 446).

Our concept of the literary canon in English has undergone several major upheavals, expanding ove... more Our concept of the literary canon in English has undergone several major upheavals, expanding over time to accommodate genres, authors, and themes that have gained cachet in the field. This paper argues that the time has come for science fiction to take its place in the canon, particulary in anthologies used in survey courses.

This paper explores the treatment of science fiction in college classrooms past, present, and fut... more This paper explores the treatment of science fiction in college classrooms past, present, and future.

This paper uses Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of carnival to analyze the movie 'Idiocracy' by Mike Jud... more This paper uses Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of carnival to analyze the movie 'Idiocracy' by Mike Judge, which leads to a discussion of ways in which carnival is transformed in a late-capitalist, media-rich society.