Imaginary and future

How science fiction redefines our relationship with death: a lecture by Marc Atallah.

In collaboration with the Société d'études thanatologiques.

Since the dawn of consciousness, death has preoccupied humankind. To understand its inevitability, civilisations have created stories - myths, legends and fictions - that explore the impact of human finitude on life and how to deal with it. This talk will examine the links between the imaginary and the future, particularly through science fiction, which sometimes projects mankind towards immortality. Immerse yourself in these fascinating stories and the reflections they provoke, helping us to look at death in a more modest and human way.

Marc Atallah is a lecturer and researcher in the French Section at UNIL. A former director of Maison d'Ailleurs in Yverdon-les-Bains, he founded nARTative SA in 2024, a company of cultural architects responsible for the Digital Dreams Festival, dedicated to digital creativity on the UNIL campus. His research focuses on conjectural literature - utopia, dystopia and science fiction - and the theories of fiction.