From terra nullius to Silicon Valley: Tracing Utopian Thought in Theresia Enzensberger's Auf See (2022)

Abstract

This article reads Theresia Enzensberger's 2022 novel Auf See as a critique of contemporary techno-utopian thinking. Through the artificial island VINETA, modeled on Silicon Valley libertarian projects like The Seasteading Institute, the novel traces a historical continuity between colonial terra nullius ideology and today's “blue acceleration” of commercial maritime expansion. Drawing on utopian theories from Bloch to Bauman, the article argues that VINETA exemplifies a shift in utopian ideals from promoting social emancipation toward technological progress. The latter, under the guise of innovation, reproduces the colonial logics of environmental resource appropriation. The article further examines how Berlin's Tiergarten briefly offers an alternative, precarious dwelling model that eschews utopian projection, before being reclaimed by the same terra nullius imagination it temporarily escaped. Ultimately, Auf See diagnoses Western utopian thought as inseparable from its colonial foundations and questions its capacity to imagine societal continuation outside of utopian ideals.