Sogni, illusioni, realtà virtuali: i mondi possibili della science fiction

This paper aims at contributing to the ongoing investigation on the specific features and functioning of SF worlds, in what concerns both the strategies of world building and the mechanisms of aesthetic reception. It begins with a general introduction to the main features of SF works in relation to the more general field of speculative fiction. In the second part, two particular models of SF worlds are considered: parallel universes and virtual realities. In the last section, the paper provides a closer reading of three works which focus on the status of virtual worlds and problematize their relationship with the ‘real’ world: the novel Ubik (1969) and the films Matrix (1999) and Inception (2010).