Ficção científica, conhecimento e novos imaginários ético-políticos: uma análise da duologia 'Monge e Robô', de Becky Chambers

Abstract

Asking ourselves what literature is capable of can open a path to understanding what happens in the encounters between reader and literature. Our hypothesis is that science fiction in particular, and literature in general, through the encounter of reader and work of literature, is capable of producing something that can be considered “knowledge”, a type of knowledge that differs from scientific knowledge, but that is productive insofar as it expands our imagination about what is necessary, what is desirable, and what is possible. For the purposes of this article, we are interested in what is produced by the reader's encounter with the seemingly perfect world of Panga, and the ways through which the duology Monk and Robot is able to act upon the reader by facilitating reflections that generate a certain type of knowledge. In this sense, beyond simple fruition and escapism devoid of power, Chambers' duology becomes, thusly, an epistemology of ben-vivir, an invitation to rethink the values that guide our ways of life, and what our real needs are. We hope that, through this theoretical and critical exercise, we are able to find ways to engage with the kind of knowledge that literature is capable of producing.