Ostrvo dana sutrašnjeg: književna fikcija kao kulturna kritika

Abstract

Kao satirična fikcija o kraju Milenijuma i apokalipsi, futuristički narativ i postmoderna utopija, roman Mogućnost ostrva savremenog francuskog književnika Mišela Uelbeka nadovezuje se na zapadnu tradiciju filozofskog katastrofizma i antiutopijske književnosti. Mogućnost ostrva se može čitati i na antropološki način, kao kulturni komentar o fenomenologiji postmoderniteta i kao kritika savremene (post)moderne kulture. Njegova književna aktuelnost, kao i kulturološka, antropološka i filozofska provokativnost, ogledaju se u tome što on tematizuje tekuće probleme sa kojima se društva u okviru Zapadne civilizacije suočavaju u postmoderno doba.

"The Possibility of an Island", novel by contemporary French writer Michel Houellebecq, might not be science fiction literature in terms of genre, but it definitely uses this genre’s experiences when it comes to problematizing 21st Century future. Houellebecq’s satirical fiction about the end of Millennium and apocalypse, adds in a certain way to Western tradition of anti-utopian literature. In my opinion, its literary contemporaneity and cultural, anthropological and philosophical provocativeness (relevancy?) reflect in the fact that author maps and reconsiders main issues and current problems which Western civilization societies face in postmodern times: domination of consumerism and obsession with the bodily, the cult of youth and beauty, pornographized eroticism, sexual tourism, genetic engineering and possibility of cloning, media virtualization of reality, flourishing of new pseudo-religious cults (New Age sects), etc.