Again, Dangerous Visions: Essays in Cultural Materialism

Andrew Milner

Again, Dangerous Visions: Essays in Cultural Materialism brings together twenty-six essays charting the development of Andrew Milner’s distinctively Orwellian version of cultural materialism between 1981 and 2015. The essays address three substantive areas: the sociology of literature, cultural materialism and the cultural politics of the New Left, and utopian and science fiction studies. They are bookended by two conversations between Milner and his editor J.R. Burgmann, the first looking back retrospectively on the development of Milner’s thought, the second looking forward prospectively towards the future of academia, the political left and science fiction.

Biographical Note

Andrew Milner, Ph.D. (1977), London School of Economics, is Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at Monash University. He has published monographs, edited collections and many articles in the sociology of literature, cultural theory and science fiction studies.

J.R. Burgmann, B.A. Hons (2013), University of Melbourne, is a Ph.D. student in Creative Writing at Monash University, where he is working on a climate fiction novel.

Readership

All interested in Marxist and neo-Marxist approaches to the sociology of literature, cultural theory, and science fiction studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements List of Figures and Tables
Introduction Andrew Milner and J.R. Burgmann: An Interview

Part 1 Sociology of Literature

Sociology and Literature
The ‘English’ Ideology: Literary Criticism in England and Australia
The Protestant Epic and the Spirit of Capitalism
On the Beach: Apocalyptic Hedonism and the Origins of Postmodernism
Loose Canons and Fallen Angels
Dissenting, Plebeian, but Belonging, Nonetheless: Bourdieu and Williams
Deconstructing National Literature: Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies and Critical Theory
It’s the Conscience Collective, Stupid: Philosophical Aesthetics and the Sociology of Art
Science Fiction and the Literary Field
10 World Systems and World Science Fiction

Part 2 Cultural Materialism

11 Considerations on English Marxism
12 Literature, History and Post-Althusserianism
13 The Revolutions in Favour of Capital
14 Cultural Materialism, Culturalism and Post-Culturalism: The Legacy of Raymond Williams
15 Cultural Studies and Cultural Hegemony: Comparing Britain and Australia
16 Class and Cultural Production: The Intelligentsia as a Social Class
17 Left Out? Marxism, the New Left and Cultural Studies
18 From Media Imperialism to Semioterrorism

Part 3 Science Fiction

19 Utopia and Science Fiction in Raymond Williams
20 Darker Cities: Urban Dystopia and Science Fiction Cinema
21 Postmodern Gothic: BuffyThe X-Files and the Clinton Presidency
22 Framing Catastrophe: The Problem of Ending in Dystopian Fiction
23 Archaeologies of the Future: Jameson’s Utopia or Orwell’s Dystopia?
24 Time Travelling: Or, How (Not) to Periodise a Genre
25 The Sea and Eternal Summer: An Australian Apocalypse
26 Ice, Fire and Flood: Science Fiction and the Anthropocene  Andrew MilnerCo-authored with J.R. Burgmann, Rjurik Davidson and Susan Cousin
Conclusion: Towards 2050 Andrew Milner and J.R. Burgmann: A Dialogue
Bibliography Index