Bug-eyed Monsters And The Encounter With The Postcolonial Other: An Analysis Of The Common Postcolonial Themes And Characteristics In Science Fiction

Abstract

Recently, a number of non-Western postcolonial authors have begun to use science fiction to express some of the common concerns of non-Western cultures such as hybridity, alterity and subalternity, as well as other issues like those concerning the body and community/hybridity, the future of former colonies extrapolated from colonial history, and encounters with the Other. This trend has also been common for Western writers from the beginning of science fiction as a distinct genre, and many Western authors have used it to highlight the superiority of Western empires, while others have used it as a tool to emphasize their negative characteristics. These Western authors have all written pieces either extolling or condemning both technology and the use of it to control subaltern cultures and maintain hegemony. Each of these authors (from both flavors of sf) has also found a means for expressing these concerns by taking advantage of some of the unique characteristics of science fiction; consequently, this text explores these characteristics of science fiction and their intersection with those of postcolonial fiction. Specifically, the intersection between definitions/characteristics of science fiction are addressed in the first chapter; then, in the following chapters are more in-depth analyses of the roles of science, myth, extrapolation, and the Other. Chapter 4 further tightens the focus on sf characteristics by focusing primarily on the different approaches to technology: Western industrial/inorganic versus postcolonial organic. Finally, Chapter 5 explores the political/social implications of postcolonial/neocolonial thought and their representations in Western and postcolonial science fiction.