"Blade Runner" and the Cyberpunk Narrative. Is Cyberpunk a Dystopian Narrative or a Genre of its own? (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Wuppertal (Anglistik), course: Narrating Los Angeles, language: English, abstract: The reference "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe" marks one of the most iconic monologues in movie history. It perfectly describes the confusing life within a dystopian future from the perspective of a being whose existence is a comment on life itself. Replicants, artificial life, flying cars, dirty streets, confusing architecture and big corporations fill the narration of "Blade Runner", often claimed as the showpiece of the art form of cyberpunk. What is cyberpunk? What is cyber? What is punk?
This seminar paper will examine the origins of the cyberpunk narrative by amplifying its roots, the dystopian scenario. Furthermore the dystopian roots within the utopian narrative will be specified.

Using the example of Ridley Scott's 1982 movie "Blade Runner" the significance of the city of Los Angeles within the cyberpunk narrative will be examined and the importance of the classic hard-boiled detective crime fiction will be put into contrast to Scott's visionary image of 2019 Los Angeles.

Is cyberpunk just another version of the dystopian narrative or is it a genre on its own? Is the narration within the cyberpunk universe still relevant or is the cyberpunk era already over?

By examining possible roots of the cyberpunk narration within the hard-boiled crime fiction of the 1920s and 1930s, a connection to Scott's "Blade Runner" is tried to be reasoned.