Metamorfoses Futuras: Depois do Mito, a Tecnologia (original) (raw)

2012, Mitos e Heróis: A Expressão do Imaginário

northrop frye wrote, in the acclaimed Anatomy of Criticism, that "science fiction […] is […] a mode of romance with a strong tendency to myth". With this statement he was trying to suggest that, following the descending movement of a mythical and heroic literature towards the realistic and ironic modes, there was a return to more romanesque forms, not only for a fantasistic representation but also -and perhaps essentiallyfor the elevated status, superhuman in its limit, of the protagonists. However, there are no mere returns, for the social-historical conditions are different, and maybe precisely for that reason scientific fiction is the genre elected by frye to take such a role: what gods and heroes were capable of through their nature, the sci fi characters do it through technology. one of those deeds, so cherished by classical mythology, is the metamorphosis, which has also acquired contemporary relevance in those speeches (not always narrative, but anyway informed by the fiction about the "post-human" and the "trans-human". Belonging to a research project named "a ficção e as raízes da cibercultura", this work wants to give a closer look to some examples previous to that euphoria usually associated (conotada) to the cyberpunk movement, and so purportedly starting only in the mid-eighties of the 20 th century. in that analysis, special attention will be given to the parallelisms between the bodily changes present in sci fi tales from the thirties till the sixties and, although not directly inspired by them, greco-latin antiquity.