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Abstract
By comparing the depictions of future energy regimes in the two ecodocumentaries, Catching the Sun (2015) and In the Name of Lithium (2021), this article explores representations of post-carbon futures from the US and Argentina. Read closely alongside Frederic Jameson’s notions of utopias, the article delineates the extent to which a solar powered future challenges and reiterates current neocolonial extractivist structures. Basing myself on Patricia Yaeger’s concept of an “energy unconscious,” I argue that these solar utopias maintain an “extraction unconscious” that continues to produce sacrifice zones where primary commodities needed for the energy transition can be found. By analysing closely the representations of energy and the cinematic technique of montage, the article demonstrates how the energy used in the creation of these utopias can itself invite new postextractivist imaginations.
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Recommended Citation
Cortés-Monroy, Isidora.
"The Extraction Unconscious: Solar-Powered Utopias in Catching the Sun (2015) and In the Name of Lithium (2021)."
Critical Humanities
3,
2
(2025).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33470/2836-3140.1067
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