Changing the Future through the Dystopian Imaginary of the Anthropocene

Topic: The relations between speculative dystopian literature and cultural processes in the Anthropocene. How these narratives interpret and influence the collective imagination, establishing links between past, present and possible futures? Hypothesis: dystopian literature stages contemporary anxieties and concerns, outlining possibilities for the future, but tracing canonical imaginaries. The idea that the imaginary has replaced reality and that the world we live in has become its own representation suggests a fundamental reversal in the way reality and the imaginary interact. In the paper, the imaginary is no longer secondary or merely reflexive, but a force that shapes and structures reality itself.

Discussion: from this perspective, objective and social reality is largely sustained by the imaginary. When narratives are socially acknowledged, they play a concrete role, forming a mental and cultural framework that directly influences policies, attitudes and behaviour.

In the context of the Anthropocene, the role of the imaginary becomes even more crucial. The way we visualize and understand ecological, technological and social crises is directly dependent on the narratives and representations that circulate. The imaginary about environmental collapse or a future of technological hyperconnectivity influences the social response to crises. The reality of the Anthropocene is shaped as much by technological and political interventions as by the representations and perceptions that accompany them.

If Imaginary could be reconfigured to produce a new reality, imagining new futures and challenging hegemonic narratives, would this be a critical turn, able to break crisis cycles and enable social and ecological transformations?

Conclusions: speculative literature can imagine new forms of social and ecological organization, and words can act as ‘medicines’ to heal the world, in a vision that suggests a more active role of narrative in shaping possible futures.