Mondi mediali. La fantascienza tra legame sociale e pragmatiche della comunicazione = Media worlds: science fiction at the intersection of social bonds and communicative pragmatics

Abstract

Drawing on the work of Philippe Breton - who identifies science fiction as a mass genre fundamental to the formation of the founding myths of modernity - this study aims to define the terms and scope of a possible identification between technological imagination and media theory. Following Jean Baudrillard's assertion that science fiction is the only literary form that truly engages with reality, the genre reconstructs representations of the imaginary within a society dominated by communication technologies, reworking its critical nodes within the media system. The article reconstructs and compares the generative moments of the scifi canon, from 19th-century scientific romance and the genre's early formalizations in pulp magazines to the aesthetics of cyberpunk, seen as a point of symbolic rupture in the representation of mass media society. Central to this analysis is the comparison of works by both writers and filmmakers, without neglecting popular illustration and comics, which in fact enrich theoretical reflection on these processes.