Summary: Changing the Climate: Utopia, Dystopia and Catastrophe | Peter Marks Utopian spaces often survive even in dystopias depicting global ecological catastrophes. They can operate as oases of plenty in otherwise devastated worlds, as symbols of survival and potential renewal, or as fragile zones inevitably overrun by malevolent environmental forces. Taking Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, Michael Winterbottom’s Code 46 and Alfonso Curon’s Children of Men as examples, this paper explores how – and to what purpose – the utopian spaces are created and maintained. It focuses closely on surveillance processes, structures and technologies, examining the ways in which the borders separating these adjacent and sometimes intersecting worlds are patrolled and enforced, and to what effect. How are the different spaces internally monitored? Is the identity and freedom of those on either side of the borders protected, controlled or threatened? And given the dire environmental circumstances, do these utopian zones function as the last vestiges of worlds on the verge of extinction, or as potential spaces of hope? Peter Marks is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, University of Sydney.
