Between science fiction and the social sciences: the "dark side" of american cities

Abstract

From the Metropolis de Fritz Lang to the city-planet of Coruscant, invented by George Lucas in the films of Star Wars, the city of the future (or of another galaxy) seems designed only to reflect the "dark side" of contemporary megalopolis, which suffer problems and dysfunctionality which are presented as insurmountable: traffic jams, contamination, environmental degradation, ethnic conflicts, deficienct public services, rising social and spatial disparities, daily violence. In order to develop this imaginary geography of fear, Latin American cities are ofien a source of inspiration for science fiction authors because they seem to them simultaneously both strange and foreign, old and modern, welcoming and dangerous. It is this tight relationship between representations of the Latin American city and the reality of the imaginary cities that we explore here, in a study ofgeofiction based on the comparison of two parallel urban worlds that play an important role in our collective mentalities.

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