Urban appearances of social inequality in science fiction: Example of Cyberpunk genre

Science fiction is a literary reflection of great curiosity about what the future will be like for society. The species has continued to develop in light of scientific and technological advances since its emergence in the 19th century. Many factors affecting the world (social, political, economic) have found their place in science fiction. However, the negativity that the world began to experience with the 20th century led to the construction of a hopeless future in science fiction. The stories told by the genre through these negativity have advanced in an urban-oriented vision. Cities are not designed as a metaphor for development, but rather as a cause of social inequality. Due to the rapidly increasing urban population in the last century, urban narratives have been included in many dystopias as a sub-branch of science fiction. In the last quarter of the 20th century, a new sub-branch of science fiction emerged about the dystopian city. This sub-branch is cyberpunk, which is characterized as high-tech, low-life. Cyberpunk dealt with the cities of the near future rather than the distant futures of previous sci-fi subgenres. Although cities have advanced technology, they are quite hopeless about social inequality. Surveillance and control with technological means are at the highest level. Therefore, in cyberpunk cities, technology plays a leading role in the production of social inequality. In this context, the study focuses on the appearances of cities and urban inequality in cyberpunk narratives. The three most important urban dystopias of cyberpunk are; the prototypes of the genre, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the most famous examples of the novels Neuromancer and Snow Crash are analyzed. Keywords: Science fiction, cyberpunk, dystopian city, social inequality