The Aesthetics of the Cyberpunk Genre as a Philosophy of History: A Journey Through the Film Architectures of Alphaville, Blade Runner and Matrix, and Their Rupture of Space-Time
Abstract
The appearance of the cyberpunk genre coincides with the beginnings of the so-called postmodernity. In this article, and following the criticisms that have been made of it as a moment of change in the historical paradigm, we propose the analysis of the profilmic spaces of fiction as a field of research in which the concerns of a phenomenology of the “end of temporality” are synthesized. Taking account of the most significant examples that have been shaping the cinematographic genre to the point of bestowing it its own entity, we will try to explain some of its aesthetic characteristics —such as temporal dystopias, the combination of historical times or the tendency to quote and pastiche— as a reflection and investigation of concerns and discussions related to philosophy of history and the media. In doing so, we will try to face the current importance of fiction as a method for thinking about history and analysing temporal categories.
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