Interdisciplinary Symposium on “Reproducing Dystopias”

In “The Promises of Monsters” (1992), Donna Haraway argues that we must escape reproducing the “sacred same.” “SF–science fiction, speculative futures, science fantasy, speculative fictions,” she writes, “is an especially apt sign under which to conduct an inquiry into the artifactural as reproductive technology that might issue in something other than the sacred image of the same, something inappropriate, unfitting, and so, maybe, inappropriated” (300). As one of the most popular and harrowing forms of speculative fiction, the dystopian imagines radically different futures, but is also a genre obsessed with and constituted by reproduction – both within its stories and also of itself. Its founding themes – fear, oppression, power – continue to be reproduced in contemporary (con)texts. From Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World imagining of futuristic reproductive technologies to those protesting for reproductive rights wearing the garb of Magaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale to Octavia Butler’s Oankali inspiring posthuman philosophical conceptions of reproduction, the dystopian consistently returns to questions of what, how, and under what conditions “we” (others) “reproduce."

Reproduction emerges in the dystopian both through representations and considerations of “reproduction” (human and more-than-/ other-than-human) and through the dystopian itself as a reproduced and reproducible artefact, through capitalist reproduction and commodification of dystopian preoccupations, objects, and bodies. “People” reproduce themselves, AI, non-human animals, tools, and potential people are (re)produced; Murderbot and Art “birth” new life. Dystopia appears to reproduce itself across a range of artistic forms, as well as in political and public life.

This symposium seeks to bring together scholars offering presentations on dystopia and/or reproduction, broadly defined, from a range of disciplines and contexts. 

This free-to-attend one-day symposium will be held on December 5th at the University of York with an option to attend online. Registration details to follow. 

Any questions, please contact us directly at:
brianna.frentzko@york.ac.uk and megan.woodward@york.ac.uk