Challenging Societies of Control in French Science Fiction: The Work of Sylvie Denis

Building on the emerging discourse on science fiction in France, this article analyzes two short stories by Sylvie Denis through the lens of Michel Foucault’s work on discipline and Gilles Deleuze’s position on societies of control. Denis, who is a central figure in French science fiction today, both emphasizes information and challenges Deleuze’s position that society has moved from a focus on the body to a focus on information. In her texts, the disciplined body locked in a sarcophagus and hooked to a computer network controls the flux of data, bridging the gap between the virtual and the biological.