Streszczenie:
The science fiction genre is one of the most popular and most diverse genres in
literature. Even though it is a literary genre praising the expression of human ingenuity in
science and technology and its consequences, the roots of the genre were born long before the
formation of modern society. Towards the second half of the 20th century, the genre has
produced an offshoot in the form of cyberpunk, or in other words, high-tech low life subtype
of science fiction.Despite the fact that both the main genre and its subgenre are underlaid by
the immense influence of modern technology and science, it it might be argued, as the present
paper sets out to do, that one of the most iconic literary production of the genre, the Sprawl
trilogy by William Gibson, consisting of Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa
Overdrive , contain a richness of references from far outside of the traditional scope of
sources usually tapped into by writers of that particular current.
The thesis examines the religious topics and tropes present in the trilogy of books by
William Gibson called Sprawl . I touch on topics such as sacred space vs. profane space,
gnosticism, shamanism, voodoo, and set out to show how they are intertwined with strictly
cyberpunk concepts such as cyberspace, Artificial Intelligence, computer networks, hackers.
My analyses are inspired and supported by the general thesis of the book by Eric
Davis titled Techgnosis . I also make references throughout the paper to some of the seminal
works by Romanian philosopher and historian of religion Mircea Eliade.
