Is it inhabited? This question immediately makes the shared stakes of science fiction and colonialism obvious. In this question the wide imaginaries of empire, what counts as life (scientifically, ethically, politically), the moral and technological possibilities of terraforming, and the impulse for exploration are all fused. Science Fiction, and the genres which preceded it and melded to ground it (especially the Scientific Romance and tales of lost civilizations), rose alongside the birth of industrialized globalized trade and imperial rushes for new resources. If the Scientific Romance dramatized the effects of new technologies on history and forms of life, then lost civilization stories dealt with themes of the alien, the forgetting of history, and more explicitly with episodes of warring and oppressed others.
However, many critical accounts of colonialism in science fiction tend to emphasize the limits and ideologies of settler mindsets rather than analyze the numerous responses from people of color or historical territories of political liminality (as in Sylvia Wynter’s demonic grounds). In this course we will read numerous texts grouped by both concepts and geography. This will include the broad concept of first contact as it parallels colonial contact, assumptions about the universality of consciousness as related to struggle and autonomy, various discourses of borders and horizons (in terms of territory and expansion), tropes of noble savages and mighty whiteys, the cross-over and conflict between decolonial theory and ecological concerns via human and material agency as offering conflicting focal points for the very notion of the Anthropocene, as well as metaphor and mimicry as central to cultural assimilation.
Course Outline
Week 1
This first lecture will look briefly at the history of science fiction and how it emerged from the synthesis of lost civilizations and technological romances. Following this we will move onto the connections between early science fiction (like Wells’ War of the Worlds) and the history of colonialism (such as how Wells was inspired by events in Tasmania). We will then conclude by examining Tuck and Wang’s work and the risks of metaphor and allegory in science fiction as a political tool.
Readings:
- Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). “Decolonization is not a metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, education & society, 1(1).
- “Introduction” to Wells, GH (1898). War of the Worlds. Harper and Brothers: New York.
Week 2
In the second lecture we will look at how the Atlantic slave trade manifests itself in science fiction, especially in regards to discussions of agency and personhood. We will examine the figure of the slave ship in the work of Ferdinand and the manifestation of the figure of the slave in relation to robots and androids.
Readings:
- Selection from Ferdinand, Malcom. (2022) Decolonial Ecology: Thinking from the Caribbean World. Cambridge: Polity.
- Clip from Famfrit, (2017)“American Gods Ep2 - Anansi Speech ‘That the Story of Black People in America!,’” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCxFnVe6RiM.
Week 3
In week three we will look at Latin America with a focus on the concept of borders and frontiers. We will discuss Bahng’s writings about Rivera’s film Sleep Dealer. We will examine in particular how the militarization of the border and the legacy of settler colonialism has manifested itself in near future dystopian writings.
Readings:
- Selection from Bahng, Aimee. (2018) Migrant Futures: Decolonizing Speculation in Financial Times. Duke University Press.
- Rivera, Alex. Director. (2008) Sleep Dealer. Maya Entertainment. 90 minutes.
Week 4
In week four we shift to the middle east and look at the connections and tensions between cultural appropriation (especially via Orientalism) and ecological themes in Villeneuve’s Dune and the novel by Frank Herbert on which it is based. The figure of the desert doubles as a place of both cultural and resource extraction as in the case of one the film’s main sites – Wadi Rum in Jordon.
Readings:
- Villeneuve, Alex. Director. (2021) Dune. Warner Brothers. 155 minutes.
- Mann, Daniel. (2022) “Red Planets: Cinema, Deserts, and Extraction.” Afterimage 1 March; 49 (1): 88–109.
Week 5
For the final session we will look at science fiction from south Asia with an emphasis on assumptions about technological progress and the language of science in non-western contexts. We will conclude by examining whether the allegorical and metaphorical approach in science fiction is political sufficient for the broader project of decolonization.
Readings:
- Kamal, Nudrat. (2019) "What South Asian sci-fi can tell us about our world" Prism, Available Online https://www.dawn.com/news/1493449
- Malik, Usman. (2014). “The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family”. Written Backwards Press.