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Exploring Thought Experimentation Through Speculative Technologies in Manjula Padmanabhan’s Escape


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Category
Articles
Publisher
Vidyawarta
Publishing Date
01-Mar-2025
volume
6
Issue
55
Pages
47-52
  • Abstract

Science fiction remains one of the most compelling genres in works of literature where sky, space, and even beyond space is the limit. In this world of huge possibilities and probabilities, the concept of thought experimentation acts as an ultimate tool to deal with hypothetical situations in the most analytical way. Manjula Padmanabhan’s novel Escape is one of the most well- received Indian Science fiction works dealing with a dystopian nation ruled by a group of corrupt bio-engineered Generals ushering panoptic surveillance and destroying the entire gender ratio with the aid of speculative technologies. This paper aims to study the thought experimentation by examining the ramifications of the theoretical situation with the aid of technology which has been used as a tool for resistance as well as a means of oppression in its dystopian society, where women have been ruthlessly destroyed. This research will look at Escape's speculative technologies, emphasizing how they shape the dystopian society and serve as thought experiments that challenge resistance, power, and control. These include feminist technoscience, eugenics, artificial reproduction, futuristic satellite monitoring, home drones, and biopolitical tactics among others used by the nation's despotic semi-god rulers.