Project description
At the intersections of speculative finance and speculative fiction
Speculation is a concept that has a place in a variety of fields – from philosophy and science fiction to finance. In fact, speculative finance forms the foundation of capitalist accumulation. It is becoming dominant in the modern capitalist economy. Meanwhile, speculative fiction is literature that deals with fictional events taking place beyond our known world. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions SF-SF project will analyse novels and films to explore the extent to which speculative finance and speculative fiction operate according to similar narrative and imaginative strategies. The project will employ critical literary analysis and symptomatology as methods to explore how the logic of financialisation relies on fictions whose representations materialise the worlds they envision.
Objective
When speculation becomes the dominant modality of contemporary capitalism, what happens to speculative fiction? What kind of worldbuilding does speculative finance do, and, once we acknowledge its narrative features, how might we use the tools of speculative fiction to intervene in this process? Can speculative fiction help us recognise the ways in which speculative finance takes effect and, from that vantage point, reveal the contradictions of financial speculation and the possibilities that lie hidden within the present? Through close analyses of novels and films, SF-SF explores the degree to which speculative finance and speculative fiction operate according to similar narrative and imaginative strategies, and how they remain distinct. Its purpose is twofold: firstly, it explores how the logic of financialisation relies on fictions whose representations materialise the worlds it envisions. Secondly, it explores a better understanding of how speculative fiction can make legible finance’s fictions and reveal its underlying contradictions. By employing critical literary analysis and symptomatology as methods, SF-SF will thus result in a better understanding of how speculative finance seeks to narrow and constrain the possibilities for the future, and how speculative fiction challenges speculative finance’s ongoing attempt to configure all aspects of political and social life in economic terms.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
4000 Roskilde
Denmark