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Éditorial. Le temps en éclats

Bertrand Gervais

Nostalgies du futur et rétrofuturisme. Présentation du dossier

Antonio Dominguez Leiva, Louis-Paul Willis and Elaine Després
Since the 1980s, retrofuturism has been a curious phenomenon in popular culture and the collective imagination. Retrofuturism presents an alternative approach to anachronism, based on alternative technological and aesthetic developments, where past visions of the future have replaced our modernity and where our present has never happened. It is part of a fundamentally redesigned relationship with time in recent cultural productions.

Du « mal de l’avenir » aux « futurs de la nostalgie ». Les émotions des temporalités alternatives

Irène Langlet
We live with the idea that the future is blocked. Yet the cultural factories of the future, particularly science fiction, remain robust. However, other factories of temporality, both competing and concomitant, are seen more clearly today, thanks to emotions, particularly nostalgia. We will first observe it by identifying the nostalgic logic of futurism; then, by shedding more technical light on the nostalgic issue of science fictional estrangement; finally, by suggesting that the alternator and electricity perfectly express this cultural logic.

Recomposer des mondes passés. La gaslamp fantasy et l’Angleterre victorienne fantastique

Jessy Neau
This article examines the meta-historical components of gaslamp fantasy, a genre born in the 2000s. Gaslamp fantasy depicts an alternative Victorian era, in which magic plays a central role and significant geopolitical changes have occured. This recomposed History results in a blending of eras, creating a time map that simultaneously unfolds several periods of the “long” nineteenth century. The article highlights how the apparent casualness of these combinations testifies to a creative project vis-à-vis History and art history, involving a fetishism that is both technological and metafictional.

Un avenir pétrifié. Le paléofuturisme conservateur de Dr. Stone

Victor-Arthur Piégay
Far from being just another mainstream shōnen manga telling a survival story, Dr. Stone deals with some of the obsessions of contemporary Japan. This paper emphasizes the implicit political content of a work in which topics such as petrification and post-disaster neo-humanity can be read in historical, geopolitical and even demographic terms, reflecting how nationalist Japan is concerned about the young generation’s commitment to fight against the crisis of the future.

Nostalgie des origines? Sur le désir et l’atemporalité dans la série Dark

Louis-Paul Willis
Dark relies on time travel and the bootstrap paradox to increase its narrative complexity. Drawing on this premise, this paper examines manifestations of nostalgia as a mechanism of desire within the series, notably through the lens Todd McGowan’s reflections on atemporal narratives. McGowan considers these narratives to be the hallmark of the transition from a logic of desire to a logic of the drive.

Collisions temporelles entre passé décomposé et futur désincarné dans Skin Elegies de Lance Olsen

Sylvie Bauer
In Lance Olsen’s Skin Elegies, clashing modes of discourse take the form of alternative narratives sifted through subjectivities, while the transhumanist project structures the novel and drives the temporal loops. But what insights does this retrospective form offer into our relationship with time and the deployment of disenchanted alternative temporalities? What happens when the past frees itself from any teleological vision, while the future sinks into a virtual present?

« Junkies Stoned on History ». Échapper au présent dans The Tiger Flu de Larissa Lai

Lisa Haristoy
In a present devoid of hope, the people of Saltwater City use a drug called N-lite to replay their shared past, which they perceive as a preferable alternative. Meanwhile, the Grist sisters, a community of persecuted clones, are haunted by their traumatic intergenerational memory. This article analyzes the ways in which Larissa Lai’s Tiger Flu portrays the dialectical tension between remembering and forgetting. It argues that representing history as a drug highlights both the power dynamics involved in the distribution of collective memory and the dilemmas faced by characters confronted with apocalyptic temporalities.

Contrefaire la mort. Les fictions extrêmes de David Vann

Cassie Bérard
In Sukkwan Island, as in Goat Mountain, David Vann turns the plot on its head: a decisive shot counters the storyline initially inspired by his life. An outspoken critic of the gun lobby in the United States, the writer subjects his characters to critical situations in which weapons are both signs of power and devastation. This article examines how David Vann’s fiction breaks into reality to unfold its horror and reverse its traumatic effect.

Raconter par PowerPoint. « Great Rock and Roll Pauses by Alison Blake » de Jennifer Egan

Sylvain David and Sophie Marcotte
The twelfth chapter of Jennifer Egan’s novel A Visit from the Goon Squad, “Great Rock and Roll Pauses by Alison Blake”, was created using PowerPoint. The author has put it online in a stand-alone version, suggesting that it can be read independently of the book. This article examines the use of this software, generally intended for professional or educational use, to tell a story. It seeks to determine the narrative potential of this approach.