THE STRUGGLE OF THE WORLDS: DELIRIUM AND FASCISM IN THE AGE OF THE MULTIVERSES

Marion Zilio

Presses Universitaires de France, 208 pages, 2026

Why you should look at it:

√ A piercing examination of how modern technologies and contemporary narratives are reshaping human reality
√ An urgent field guide to the fragmentation of the world
√ A visionary dispatch from one of France’s most compelling cultural critics

Has the sci-fi spectacle of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds been supplanted by The Struggle of the Worlds, as art theorist and critic Marion Zilio contends? In this forward-thinking essay, she proposes an analysis of new entangled realities— Hollywood multiverses, Silicon Valley metaverses, AI artificial realisms, ,animal Umwelten, decolonial pluriverses, dream worlds — and the effects of this multiplicity of worlds on our perception of reality today.

As the Western construct of a singular "world" that long served to justify imperialist violence in the name of universal good is breaking down, anthropologists, philosophers, and artists increasingly recognize there isn't just one world, but an infinite, interlocking matrix of worlds within worlds.  

How can we navigate this new entanglement of worlds? By building bridges between the diverse worldviews that traverse our contemporary era—from the most emancipatory to the most totalitarian, from the most inclusive to the most exclusive—Marion Zilio radically redefines our understanding of the present. Living in an era of clashing worlds, she offers us a map to find your way.

Marion Zilio is a philosopher, author, art critic and curator. She is the author of Faceworld. The Face in the 21st Century (Polity Press, 2020) and Le livre des larves (PUF, 2020). She is a Professor of Media and Art Theory and regularly contributes to scholarly publications, monographs and exhibition catalogues. As a curator, she designs exhibitions in France and internationally for galleries, art centers, institutions and alternative spaces.