Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'History of science fiction'
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Leperlier, Henry. "Canadian science fiction, a reluctant genre." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0033/NQ61856.pdf.
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Jorgensen, Darren J. "Science fiction and the sublime." University of Western Australia. English, Communication and Cultural Studies Discipline Group, 2005. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2005.0116.
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[Truncated abstract] This thesis makes three assertions. The first is that the sublime is a principal pleasure of science fiction. The second is that the conditions for the emergence of both the sublime and science fiction lie in the modern developments of technology, mass economy and imperialism. Maritime and optical technologies; the imagination that accompanied imperialism; and the influence of capitalism furnished the cognition by which the pleasures of both science fiction and the sublime came into being. The third claim is that a historical conception of the sublime, one that changes according to the different circumstances in which it appears, offers privileged insights onto changes within the genre. To make such extensive claims it has been necessary to make a cognitive map of the development of both the sublime and science fiction. This map reaches from the Ancient Romans, Lucian and Longinus; to Thomas More, Jonathan Swift, Johannes Kepler, Voltaire and Immanuel Kant; to Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. This thesis then examines how the features of these fictions mutate in the twentieth-century fiction of A.E. van Vogt, Clifford Simak, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Ivan Yefremov, the Strugatsky brothers, J.G. Ballard, Pamela Zoline, Ursula Le Guin, Vonda McIntyre, Octavia Butler, Kim Stanley Robinson, Stephen Baxter, William Gibson, Ken MacLeod and Stanislaw Lem. These writers are considered in their own specific periods, and in their national contexts, as they create pleasures that are contingent upon changes to their own worlds. In representing these changes, their fictions defamiliarise the anxieties of the reading subject. They transcend the contradictions of their times with a sublime that betrays its own conditions of transcendence. The deployment of the sublime in these texts offers a moment of critical possibility, as it betrays the fantasies born of a subject's relation to their world
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Beaulé, Sophie. "L'institution de la science-fiction française, 1977-1983." Thesis, McGill University, 1985. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=65469.
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Proietti, Salvatore. "The cyborg, cyberspace, and North American science fiction." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0021/NQ44558.pdf.
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NEWMAN, CHINA RAE. "GENDER PERFORMANCE IN DYSTOPIAN LITERATURE THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE FICTION." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/613347.
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This work analyzes the use and portrayal of gender in Jack London’s The Iron Heel (1908), George Orwell’s 1984 (1949), Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), and Stephanie Collins’ The Hunger Games (2008), four dystopian works written over a period of 100 years. It questions the reasoning behind the use of gender within each of the texts and looks at the changes in the use and presentation of gendered characters in each of the novels, considering the purpose of each text and the possible reasoning behind gendered portrayals of the characters in each story. Though a chronological analysis of these texts reveals a change from the portrayal of femininity as a singular good to a mindless weakness to a necessary balancing force, feminine characters remain subordinate to and weaker than masculine characters, even as a female protagonist takes the stage in the final novel. Finally, the work questions whether the conventions of the dystopian genre preclude the existence of a feminine dystopian hero or if the reason she has not yet been written is based on a cultural bias towards strong masculinity in main characters of any gender rather than the norms of the dystopian genre.
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Sutton, Summer. "Entangled Bodies: Tracing the Marks of History in Contemporary Science Fiction." VCU Scholars Compass, 2018. https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/5421.
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Chapter one, “Narrating Entanglement: Posthuman Agency and Subjectivity in Shane Carruth’s Filmography,” considers the resonances of independent filmmaker Shane Carruth’s two SF films, Primer (2004) and Upstream Color (2013) with the ethos of quantum entanglement through close-readings of Primer’s anti-individualistic portrayal of scientific invention and Upstream Color’s metaphorically entangled human-pig character system. Chapter two, “Race and Schrödingers’s Legacy: History is Both Alive and Dead in Hari Kunzru’s White Tears” analyzes the 2017 novel White Tears as a narrative figuration of of the political, racial, and cultural entanglements set in motion by the economic structure of slavery, ultimately arguing that Kunzru’s entangled plotlines and histories critique the entanglement of contemporary U.S. capitalism with its past and present exploitation of black bodies. The third and final chapter, “Problem Child: Untangling the Reproduction Narrative in Lai and Phang’s SF Bildungsromans” uses close readings of two SF bildungsromans, Larissa Lai’s 2002 novel Salt Fish Girl and Jennifer Phang’s 2015 film Advantageous, both of which follow women of color protagonists not permitted to grow up in the ‘right’ ways, to shed light on the instability of a social order simultaneously grounded in the exploitation of marginalized bodies and the illusion of a reproducible, homogenous nation. Ultimately, “Entangled Bodies” uses a literary exploration of quantum entanglement to reveal both the limits of seemingly-totalizing power structures, narrative or otherwise, and the collective possibilities for re-definition that can, in part, be kindled by a favored tool of Western science: the human imagination.
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Chohan, Imran Riaz. "Identity, hyperreality and Science fiction : Matrix and Neuromancer." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för planering och mediedesign, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-5779.
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My Bachelor’s thesis is a comparative analysis between humans and machines in a science fiction novel (Neuromancer) and a movie (Matrix). I explored in these works how the machines used technologies to influence on the humans. I used examples of characters from the text and movie along with the references of other writers writing on the same topic to help convey my message. I explored mainly the identity and reality issues among characters. William Gibson in Neuromancer portrays that technology has become a part of human body. While in the Matrix we see how machines are taking control on humans. In my thesis I started with Neuromancer and write about identity and reality issues of characters and artificial intelligences. In the second part of the thesis I write the same with the characters of the movie Matrix but also I compared these characters with characters of Neuromancer. Some other discussions in my thesis are about hyperreality, simulation, simulacra with reference to mostly Baudrillard. Overall this thesis explores the issues of identity and reality to the characters in the works and also to the readers as well. Key Terms: Identity, Reality, Hyperreality, Simulation, Simulacra.
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Merrifield, Jeff. "Ken Campbell and the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool : an analytical history." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.250438.
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Gevers, Nicholas David. "Mirrors of the past : versions of history in science fiction and fantasy." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10511.
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The primary argument of this Thesis is that Science Fiction (SF) is a form of Historical Fiction, one which speculatively appropriates elements of the past in fulfilment of the ideological expectations of its genre readership. Chapter One presents this definition, reconciling it with some earlier definitions of SF and justifying it by means of a comparison between SF and the Historical Novel. Chapter One also identifies SF's three modes of historical appropriation (historical extension, imitation and modification) and the forms of fictive History these construct, including Future History and Alternate History; theories of history, and SF's own ideological changes over time, have helped shape the genre's varied borrowings from the past. Some works of Historical Fantasy share the characteristics of SF set out in Chapter One. The remaining Chapters analyse the textual products of SF's imitation and modification of history, i.e. Future and Alternate Histories. Chapter Two discusses various Future Histories completed or at least commenced before 1960, demonstrating their consistent optimism, their celebration of Science and of heroic individualism, and their tendency to resolve the cyclical pattern of history through an ideal linear simplification or 'theodicy'. Chapter Three shows the much greater ideological and technical diversity of Future Histories after 1960, their division into competing traditional (Libertarian), Posthistoric (pessimistic), and critical utopian categories, an indication of SF's increasing complexity and fragmentation.
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Davis, Ben Jr. "History, Race and Gender in the Science Fiction of Octavia Estelle Butler." The Ohio State University, 1992. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392045358.
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Hall, Karen Peta. "Discovering the lost race story : writing science fiction, writing temporality." University of Western Australia. English and Cultural Studies Discipline Group, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0216.
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Genres are constituted, implicitly and explicitly, through their construction of the past. Genres continually reconstitute themselves, as authors, producers and, most importantly, readers situate texts in relation to one another; each text implies a reader who will locate the text on a spectrum of previously developed generic characteristics. Though science fiction appears to be a genre concerned with the future, I argue that the persistent presence of lost race stories where the contemporary world and groups of people thought to exist only in the past intersect in science fiction demonstrates that the past is crucial in the operation of the genre. By tracing the origins and evolution of the lost race story from late nineteenth-century novels through the early twentieth-century American pulp science fiction magazines to novel-length narratives, and narrative series, at the end of the twentieth century, this thesis shows how the consistent presence, and varied uses, of lost race stories in science fiction complicates previous critical narratives of the history and definitions of science fiction.
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Stolze, Pierre. "Rhétorique de la science-fiction." Nancy 2, 1994. http://www.theses.fr/1994NAN21004.
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Le texte de science-fiction est étudié selon les grandes divisions de la rhétorique classique. Invention (le contenu) : la SF n'a pas de thème propre, sinon celui de l'individu face au pouvoir; le contenu d'un texte de SF est un ensemble de métaphores s'organisant en allégorie. Composition (structure): un texte de SF s'organise selon les principes du cut up, de l'ellipse, du puzzle et du suspense. Élocution (stylistique) : étude du vocabulaire (tres étendu), de la syntaxe (réduite) et des figures de style (essentiellement des figures de pensée, et non des figures de mots comme c'est le cas en littérature classique). Action (metatexte) : étude des titres, remerciements, épigraphes, premières et quatrièmes de couverture. S’y ajoute une partie définition : la SF est définie dans ses rapports ou oppositions avec la littérature, la paralittérature, la science, le fantastique et l'anticipationThe study of science-fiction follows the principal division of classical rhetoric. Invention (content) : science fiction has no theme of its own except that of the individual in the face of authority, the context of a science fiction text is a collection of metaphors arranged under the form of allegory. Composition (structure): a science fiction text often consists of various literary devices, such as cut up, ellipsis, jigsaws, suspense. Elocution (stylistics): the study of large range of vocabulary, of a reduced syntax and stylistics devices (mostly figures of thought not of word as is the case in classical literature). Action (metatext): the study of titles, acknowledgements, first and fourth covers pages. Here, one must add a definition: science fiction is definite by is relationship or opposition with literature, non-mainstream literature, science, the literature of the fantastic and anticipation
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Ross, Simon David. "Nostalgia in postmodern science fiction film." Thesis, Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2001. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk:8888/cgi-bin/hkuto%5Ftoc%5Fpdf?B23472741.
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Kwan, Wing-ki Koren, and 關詠琪. "Experiments in subjectivity: a study of postmodern science fiction." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2005. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3681250X.
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King, Edward Carlos Richard. "Mapping the control society : science fiction tropes and digital technologies in contemporary Argentine and Brazilian narrative." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.610135.
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Jordan, Linda. "German science-fiction magazines of Hugo Gernsback, 1926-1935." Thesis, McGill University, 1986. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=65493.
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Määttä, Jerry. "Raketsommar : Science fiction i Sverige 1950–1968." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Litteraturvetenskapliga institutionen, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-7158.
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The subject of this dissertation is the introduction and reception of science fiction literature in Sweden 1950–1968. Apart from considerations on science fiction as a genre and market category, and a brief survey of science fiction published in Sweden before the year 1950, the dissertation scrutinizes the Swedish publishers’ attempts at introducing both domestic and translated science fiction, the reception of the genre in Swedish literary criticism, the magazines Häpna! (1954–1966) and Galaxy (1958–1960), and the foundation of a Swedish science fiction fan culture. Science fiction was established as a category on the Swedish book market in the early 1950s, with several attempts to launch single works or whole series of mainly translated fiction. Between 1952 and 1968, roughly 30 publishing firms published over 160 books marketed as science fiction, with an apex in the late 1950s. Few publishers were successful, however, and most of the series were discontinued within just a few years of their inception. Meanwhile, in Swedish literary criticism, science fiction was increasingly perceived as a deficient form of commercial entertainment. A few of the exceptions were Harry Martinson (1904–1978), with his space epic Aniara (1956), and the translated author Ray Bradbury (b. 1920), who came to be considered as surpassing the boundaries of the genre. With the magazine Häpna!, a Swedish science fiction fan culture was contrived, with fans forming clubs, arranging conventions, disseminating fanzines, and, eventually, starting their own publishing firms and magazines. In the Swedish literary system, science fiction became a semi-separate literary circuit of production, distribution and consumption, and, concurrently, a growing autonomous subfield of cultural production, with its own forms of specific symbolic capital, doxa, and instances of consecration.
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James, Sarah J. "Not without my body : feminist science fiction and embodied futures." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14613.
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This study explores the interaction between feminist science fiction and feminist theory, focusing on the body and embodiment. Specifically, it aims to demonstrate that feminist science fiction novels of the 1990s offer an excellent platform for exploring the critical theories of the body put forward by Judith Butler in particular, and other feminist/queer theorists in general. The thesis opens with a brief history of science fiction's depiction of the body and feminist science fiction's subversions and rewritings of this, as well as an overview of Judith Butler's theories relating to the body and embodiment. It then considers a wide range of feminist science fiction novels from the 1990s, focusing on four key areas; bodies materialised outside patriarchal systems in women-only or women-ruled worlds, alien bodies, cyborg bodies and bodies in cyberspace. An in-depth analysis of the selected texts reveals that they have important contributions to make to the consideration of bodies as they develop and expand the issues raised by theorists such as Butler, Elisabeth Grosz, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva.
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Hagan, Justice M. "Desert Enlightenment: Prophets and Prophecy in American Science Fiction." University of Dayton / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1366729757.
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Dunlap, Sarah Elizabeth. "Novel Ecologies: The New Science of Life in Modern Fiction." The Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1494318892609889.
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Johansson, Daniel. "Från Shelley till Asimov : Medvetandets filosofis utveckling i science fiction." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för idé- och lärdomshistoria, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-384365.
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Uppsatsen beskriver utveckling av medvetandets filosofi i science fiction mellan 1800-talet och mitten av 1900-talet. För analysen används Mary Shelleys Frankenstein och Isaac Asimovs the Bicentennial Man. Utvecklingen i science fiction går parallellt med utveckling inom filosofin. Utvecklingen går mot en fysikalisk lösning på kropp och medvetande problemet med argument från behaviorismen, identitetsteorin, samt funktionalismen.
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Ellis, Jason W. "Brains, Minds, and Computers in Literary and Science Fiction Neuronarratives." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1337654951.
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Hildreth-Blue, Cynthia. "Enlivening California's sixth grade history/social sciences curriculum with historical fiction." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1990. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/562.
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Cioni, Anna Maria. "Le récit du futur : futurisme et science-fiction." Paris 3, 1993. http://www.theses.fr/1994PA030061.
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Les ecrivains futuristes ont cree en italie, au debut du siecle, un veritable recit du futur, selon les techniques traditionnelles (la prophetie, l'utopie, le reve), mais aussi selon des techniques bien plus modernes, qui s'etaient developpees apres la diffusion des theories evolutionnistes : d'un cote la futurologie, ou la prevision scientifique du futur, de l'autre la science-fiction. Le veritable essor du genre de la science-fiction coincide d'ailleurs avec la naissance des avant-gardes historiques et il a ete possible lorsque, dans un milieu toujours plus marque par les effets du progres scientifique, une nouvelle conception du futur a fait irruption dans l'univers de la litterature. Cette meme conception du futur a rendu possible la naissance des avant-gardes. Le futur, cependant, pour les futuristes est aussi un discours global qui ne saurait pas se limiter a la litterature romanesque, mais qui interesse toute leur production, des manifestes a l'art figurative, donnant la naissance a une veritable machine a explorer le temps futuristeAt the beginning of the century, in italy, futurist writers gave birth to a real future story. This was done in conformity with traditional techniques (prophecy, utopia, dream) as well as with rather more modern techniques derived from spreading evolutionist theories : on the one hand futurology, or scientific prediction about the futur, on the other hand science fiction. In fact the true science fiction genre developed at precisely the time when historical avant-garde, because based on the same idea of future, made its appearance. This became possible thanks a new conception of the future that appears in the literary field, inside the new technological environment. For futurist writers the future has a wider "global" meaning than fiction. It covers all their output ranging from manifestos to figurative art creating a real futurist time machine
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Zajac, Ronald J. (Ronald John). "The Dystopian city in British and US science fiction, 1960-1975 : urban chronotopes as models of historical closure." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61046.
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In much dystopian SF, the city models a society which represses the protagonist's sense of historical time, replacing it with a sense of "private" time affecting isolated individuals. This phenomenon appears in dystopian SF novels of 1960-75--including Thomas M. Disch's 334, John Brunner's The Jagged Orbit, Philip K. Dick's Martian Time-Slip, J. G. Ballard's High-Rise, and Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren--as well as some precursors--including Wells, Zamyatin's We, Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. In these novels the cities also reveal in their chronotopic arrangement the degree to which revolutionary forces can oppose the dystopian order. While the earlier dystopias see revolution crushed by despotic state power, those of 1960-75 see it thwarted by the dehumanizing effects of capitalism. The period from 1960-75 ends in resignation to an existence in which individual action can no longer effect political change, at best tempered by irony (Disch, Delany).
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Böhnke, Dietmar. "Shades of Gray: Science Fiction, History and the Problem of Postmodernism in the Work of Alasdair Gray." Galda und Wilch, 2004. https://ul.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A32037.
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André, Danièle. "Cinéma de science-fiction et sociétés anglophones contemporaines." Paris 3, 1998. http://www.theses.fr/1998PA030108.
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Le but de cette thèse est de montrer que les films de science-fiction peuvent non seulement nous divertir, mais aussi nous faire réfléchir. Le recul pris nous permettra d'appréhender ce que les films de science-fiction des années quatre-vingt laissent transparaitre des sociétés anglophones contemporaines. L’étude de ces films nous apprend qu'ils reflètent les questions que nous nous posons sur la vie quotidienne. Ils dépeignent un monde contrôlé par des groupes économiques et politiques, et menacé par le pouvoir militaire. Toutefois, les films de science-fiction abordent aussi des inquiétudes plus profondes telles que nos idéaux, nos espoirs et nos peurs. Ainsi, ils montrent clairement l'opposition qui existe entre ce que nous aimerions être et ce que nous sommes, et ils nous permettent de mieux comprendre le rôle joué par la religion et par la science. En outre, ils reflètent l'attitude que nous adoptons envers notre environnement, ce que ce dernier révèle de nous-mêmes, et envers les autres. Ils mettent en évidence les changements survenus dans les relations humaines, et la douteuse progression du statut réservé aux femmes dans la société. De plus, nous comprenons que notre spécificité humaine est aussi ce qui nous rend conscients de notre état de mortel, une destinée que nous ne parvenons pas à accepter. Nous ne devons pas oublier que les films de science-fiction sont un divertissement qui nous permet de rêver et de nous amuser. Cependant, ils nous demandent aussi quelle vie nous aimerions avoir; s'ils évoquent un futur déshumanise, ils nous laissent libres de le transformer en un avenir plus souriantThis thesis aims to show that science fiction films are not only entertaining but that they are also thought-provoking. The benefit of hindsight enables us to appreciate contemporary english speaking societies through the glimpses shown by the science fiction films of the eighties. When we take a second look at them, we realise that they reflect our questioning about our daily life. They depict a world controlled by economic and political groups, and jeopardised by the military. However, science fiction films also deal with deeper worries such as our ideals, our hopes and our fears. Thus they clearly show the opposition between what we would like to be and what we are, and help us to understand better the roles of religion and science. Moreover, the films studied also reflect our behaviour towards our environment, and what it reveals about ourselves, and towards others. They also mirror the changes which have occurred in personal relationships, but also show that women's role in society has not really evolved. Science fiction films of the eighties tell us, somehow, that what makes human beings different from other living beings is also what makes us face our more painful reality, death, and our inability to accept it. We must not forget that science fiction films are an entertainment enabling us to dream and enjoy ourselves. However, science fiction films also ask us which life we would like to lead; they may evoke a dehumanized future, but they set us free to act and turn these pessimistic prospects into better ones
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Blatchford, Mathew. "The old New Wave : a study of the 'New Wave' in British science fiction during the 1960s and early 1970s, with special reference to the works of Brian W. Aldiss, J.G. Ballard, Harry Harrison and Michael Moorcock." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22150.
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Bibliography: pages 174-184.This thesis examines the 'New Wave' in British science fiction in the 1960s and early 1970s. The use of the terms 'science fiction' and 'New Wave' in the thesis are defined through a use of elements of the ideological theories of Louis Althusser. The New Wave is seen as a change in the ideological framework of the science fiction establishment. For oonvenience, the progress of the New Wave is divided into three stages, each covered by a chapter. Works by the four most prominent writers in the movement are discussed.
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Forshaw, Mark. "Affectless subjects, atrocious bodies : thematics and history in fictions by Burroughs, Ballard and Gibson." Thesis, Keele University, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.391222.
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McGinney, William Lawrence. "The Sounds of the Dystopian Future: Music for Science Fiction Films of the New Hollywood Era, 1966-1976." Thesis, connect to online resource, 2009. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-9839.
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McFarlane, Anna M. "A gestalt approach to the science fiction novels of William Gibson." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6263.
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Gestalt psychologists Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler argue that human perception relies on a form, or gestalt, into which perceptions are assimilated. Gestalt theory has been applied to the visual arts by Rudolf Arnheim and to literature by Wolfgang Iser. My original contribution to knowledge is to use gestalt theory to perform literary criticism, an approach that highlights the importance of perception in William Gibson's novels and the impact of this emphasis on posthumanism and science fiction studies. Science fiction addresses the problem of difference and the relationship between self and other. Gestalt literary criticism takes perception as the interface between the self and the other, the human and the inhuman. Gibson's work is of particular interest as his early novels are representative of 1980s cyberpunk while his later novels push the boundaries of science fiction through their contemporary settings. By engaging with Gibson the thesis makes its contribution to contemporary science fiction criticism explicit. In Gibson's Sprawl trilogy autopoiesis defines life and consciousness, elevating the importance of perception (Chapter I). The Bridge trilogy uses the metaphor of chaos theory to examine dialectic tensions, such as the tension between space and cyberspace (Chapter II). Faulty pattern recognition is a key theme in Gibson's post-9/11 work as gestalt perception allows and limits knowledge (Chapter III). Chapter IV explains how the gestalt in psychoanalysis creates a fragmented subject in Spook Country (2007). Finally, the gestalt appears as a parallax view, a view that oscillates between the world we experience and the world as represented in the text (Chapter V). I conclude that gestalt literary criticism offers an exciting new reading of Gibson's work that recognises its engagement with visual culture and cyberpunk as a whole.
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Gill, Josephine Ceri. "Race, genetics and British fiction since the Human Genome Project." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.610822.
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Ejsmund, Arnika Nora. ""Light is the left hand of darkness" : breaking away from invalid dichotomies in science fiction." Diss., Pretoria : [s.n.], 2002. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-06172005-111926.
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Bozzetto, Roger. "Deux genres des littératures de l'imaginaire : la science-fiction, le fantastique." Aix-Marseille 1, 1988. http://www.theses.fr/1988AIX10036.
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Le domaine des litteratures de l'imaginaire a ete restructure, en fonction des bouleversements qui ont eu lieu dans le domaine de la representation du monde, qui prend en compte les avancees scientifiques. L'emergence de genres neufs, le fantastique et la sciencefiction vient troubler l'opposition ancienne du merveilleux gratuit et du mimetique referentiel. Avec le genre de la science-fiction, qui se forme en integrant les apports du voyage imaginaire et de l'utopie, nous aboutissons a une fiction speculative, mimetique d'un virtuel. Avec le genre du fantastique, les rapports, donnes comme evidents entre le pensable et le representable, sont mis en question. Ces genres se situent comme deux tentatives heterogenes de maitriser l'alterite : la science-fiction, metaphoriquement, la donnant a voir sur le mode du "si" ; le fantastique tendant a la presenter metonymiquement comme innommable et pourtant-la, engendrant par la un decentrement de la raison. Ces deux genres neufs sont presentes dans leur emergence - en rela- tion avec des textes fondateurs et des ecrivains seminaux ; dans leur evolution - selon les epoques et les cultures ; dans le deve- loppement de leur thematique ; dans leur rapport aux mythologies, et dans l'histoire de leur receptionThe scope of the literature of the imaginary has been restructured according to the upheaval which took place regarding a representation of the world taking into account scientific progress. The emergence of new genres, the fantastic and science fiction, perturbed the hitherto valid opposition between what was gratuitously marvellous and the referential mimetic. The science fiction genre, which was formed by integrating the contributions of imaginary travels and the utopia, resulted in a speculative fiction, imitating a virtual. With the fantastic genre, the relation between the conceivable and the representable, hitherti considered as obvious, is open to question. These genre can be considered as two heterogeneous attempts to master alterity : science fiction, metaphorically giving a perception on the mode of "if" ; the fantastic, tending to present it metonymically as unnameable and yet existent - thus engendring an off-centring of reason. These two new genres are presented in their emergence - in relation to the earliest texts (textes fondateurs) and seminal authors ; in their evolution - according to the periods and cultures ; in their thematic development ; in their relations to mythologies, and in the history of their reception
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Bréan, Simon. "La science-fiction en France de la Seconde Guerre mondiale à la fin des années soixante-dix." Thesis, Paris 4, 2010. http://www.theses.fr/2010PA040125.
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Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la littérature de science-fiction s’est développée en France sous la forme d’un sous-champ isolé au sein du champ littéraire, avec ses collections, ses critiques et ses lecteurs spécifiques. Cette littérature produit des univers fictionnels en tension entre la réalité conventionnelle et des états alternatifs de cette réalité, selon une modalité dénommée dans la thèse le « régime ontologique matérialiste spéculatif ». Le corpus des romans a été analysé d’abord dans une perspective diachronique, en présentant une histoire des acteurs, des structures éditoriales et des thèmes de la science-fiction en France, articulée à une réflexion sur les conditions et les perspectives d’écriture des auteurs français. Les romans ont ensuite été analysés de manière à permettre une théorisation à plusieurs niveaux de l’écriture de la science-fiction : le mot et le texte de science-fiction, les mondes fictionnels extrapolés à partir du monde réel et enfin la mémoire collective mise en place par l’ensemble des œuvres, que nous nommons le « macrotexte » de la science-fiction. Notre contribution principale à l’histoire littéraire est l’étude de la manière dont évoluent les représentations communes en science-fiction, sous la forme de paradigmes dominants successifs où les écrivains réinterprètent les images et idées de la science-fiction. Nous avons établi selon quelles modalités le corpus des romans de science-fiction fournit à l’analyse du discours narratif, à la théorie de la fiction et à l’étude de l’intertextualité, des exemples remarquables en raison des dispositifs destinés à mettre les univers de science-fiction en concurrence avec la réalitéAfter the Second World War in France, science fiction literature took the form of an isolated subaltern field within the literary field, featuring specific publishing series, critics and readership. In science fiction novels, fictional worlds are created by mixing conventional reality and alternate states of reality, a process I call “régime ontologique matérialiste spéculatif” (“speculative materialistic ontological status”). I have studied French science fiction novels first from a historical perspective, by describing the protagonists, the publishers and the themes of French science fiction, as well as by assessing how and to what end French science fiction writers wrote their novels. I have then studied these novels at several levels: how words and texts are shaped in science fiction, how fictional worlds are extrapolated from the real world and how science fiction texts generate a collective memory, which I call the “macrotext” of science fiction. Our thesis contributes to literary history by studying how the perception of science fiction gradually changes over time, each main paradigm morphing into a new one as writers adapt science fiction images and ideas to their needs. I have also pointed out how science fiction novels may prove of a keen interest to narrative discourse analysis, fiction theory and intertextuality approach, because of various devices meant to allow science fiction worlds to compete with reality
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Floerke, Jennifer Jodelle. "A queer look at feminist science fiction: Examing Sally Miller Gearhart's The Kanshou." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2005. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2889.
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This thesis is a queer theory analysis of the feminist science fiction novel The Kanshou by Sally Miller Gearhart. After exploring both male and female authored science fiction in the literature review, two themes were to be dominant. The goal of this thesis is to answer the questions, can the traditional themes that are prevalent in male authored science fiction and feminist science fiction in representing gender and sexual orientation dichotomies be found in The Kanshou? And does Gearhart challenge these dichotomies by destabilizing them? The analysis found determined that Gearhart's The Kanshou does challenge traditional sociological norms of binary gender identities and sexual orientation the majority of the time.
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Steenkamp, Elzette Lorna. "Identity, belonging and ecological crisis in South African speculative fiction." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002262.
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This study examines a range of South African speculative novels which situate their narratives in futuristic or ‘alternative’ milieus, exploring how these narratives not only address identity formation in a deeply divided and rapidly changing society, but also the ways in which human beings place themselves in relation to Nature and form notions of ‘ecological’ belonging. It offers close readings of these speculative narratives in order to investigate the ways in which they evince concerns which are rooted in the natural, social and political landscapes which inform them. Specific attention is paid to the texts’ treatment of the intertwined issues of identity, belonging and ecological crisis. This dissertation draws on the fields of Ecocriticism, Postcolonial Studies and Science Fiction Studies, and assumes a culturally specific approach to primary texts while investigating possible cross-cultural commonalities between Afrikaans and English speculative narratives, as well as the cross-fertilisation of global SF/speculative features. It is suggested that South African speculative fiction presents a socio-historically situated, rhizomatic approach to ecology – one that is attuned to the tension between humanistic- and ecological concerns.
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Gindre, Philippe. "La formation des néologismes dans la littérature de science-fiction d'expression anglaise contemporaine." Besançon, 1999. http://www.theses.fr/1999BESA1003.
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La science-fiction de langue anglaise offre à certains chercheurs un terrain d'étude privilégié : un souci de cohérence et de plausibilité propre aux écrivains de SF permet en effet d'étudier les sociétés ou les comportements qu'ils décrivent comme si l'on partait pour ainsi dire de faits réels. Or, il est possible au linguiste et notamment au lexicologue de se livrer à une recherche similaire : l'analyse des néologismes en fonction des matrices lexicogeniques concourant à leur formation permet de comparer le lexique de la SF au lexique réel. Une telle étude menée à partir d'un corpus de romans représentatifs de la production contemporaine (1955-1985) tend à montrer que des auteurs qui se bornent à représenter un phénomène global (une société), en reproduisent en fait un aspect fondamental (le lexique), jusque dans des détails dont ils n'ont vraisemblablement pas le souci. Toutefois, si la répartition des matrices lexicogeniques (au premier rang desquelles la composition et la métonymie) est remarquablement similaire dans le lexique réel et en SF, les œuvres de SF se caractérisent par des combinaisons matricielles inédites et des relations sémantiques nouvelles. Par ailleurs, on constate la présence de réseaux sémantiques au sein desquels interviennent simultanément la connotation, la paronymie, ou la polysémie des éléments des composés. La mise en évidence de ces réseaux, davantage qu'une simple analyse sémique, permet de rendre compte des différents sens possibles de certaines des lexies étudiées. On constate également la nécessité d'une double lecture (intra diégétique et extra diégétique) : la motivation des lexies est conditionnée à la fois par l'univers fictif décrit et par le lectorat auquel s'adresse l'auteur. L'infirmation de certaines idées reçues (prédominance des amalgames, importance du technolecte) montre enfin qu'il était souhaitable de mener dans ce domaine une étude lexicologique systématique, basée sur une approche empirico-inductive.
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Wälivaara, Josefine. "Dreams of a subversive future : sexuality, (hetero)normativity, and queer potential in science fiction film and television." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för kultur- och medievetenskaper, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-62893.
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The aim of the thesis is to explore depictions of sexuality in popular science fiction film and television through a focus on storytelling, narrative, characters and genre. The thesis analyses science fiction as a film and television genre with a focus on the conventions, interpretations, and definitions of genre as part of larger contexts. Central to the argumentation is films and television series, from Star Wars and Star Trek, to Firefly and Torchwood. The approach allows a consideration of how the storytelling conventions of science fiction are, and have been, affected by its contexts. Through a consideration of a historical de-emphasis on narrative complexity and character formation in science fiction, the thesis displays and analyses a salient tendency towards juvenile and heteronormative narratives. This tendency is represented by a concept that I call the Star’verses, through which this dominant idea of science fiction as a juvenile, techno-centred, masculine, and heteronormative genre became firmly established. This generic cluster has remained a dominant influence on science fiction film and television since the 1980s. However, as argued, a major discursive shift took place in science fiction at the turn of the millennium. This adult turn in science fiction film, and television in particular, is attributed to contextual changes, but also to the influence of television dramaturgy. It explains why science fiction in the 21st century is not as unfamiliar with depictions of sexuality as its predecessors were. This turn does not signal a total abandonment of what the Star’verses represent; it instead contributes to a change to this dominant idea of the generic identity of science fiction. While sexuality has been disassociated from much science fiction, it is also argued that the science fiction narrative has extensive queer potential. Generic conventions, such as aliens and time travel, invite both queer readings and queer storytelling; the latter however is seldom used, especially in science fiction film. A majority of the examples of science fiction narrative that use this queer potential can be found in television. In cinema, however, this progression is remarkably slow. Therefore, the thesis analyses whether the storytelling techniques of Hollywood cinema, to which science fiction film owes much of its dramaturgy, could be considered heteronormative. A comparison is made to television dramaturgy in order to display the possibilities for the serialised, character-focused science fiction narrative. Ultimately, the thesis investigate the possibility for subversive storytelling and whether a normative use of dramaturgy needs to be overthrown in order to tell a subversive story.
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Rivière, Nathalie. "Le cinéma américain de science-fiction de 1968 à 2001 : prospective et perspectives." Caen, 2007. http://www.theses.fr/2007CAEN1474.
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D’où venons-nous ? Qui sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ? Ces trois questions existentielles sous-tendent le film de Stanley Kubrick, 2001, A Space Odyssey. Ce récit résume un siècle de science-fiction à travers ses thèmes majeurs comme la conquête de l’espace, la recherche d’une intelligence non terrestre, la technologie, la robotisation, le désir de surpasser le créateur qu’il s’agisse de l’homme ou de Dieu lui-même, ou encore la solitude de l’homme face à l’immensité de l’univers. L’homme est le sujet de 2001, A Space Odyssey. De ses origines à son avenir, Kubrick nous montre son évolution. Plus largement, il nous parle de la vie, celle que l’homme pourrait rencontrer dans l’espace, ou celle qui pourrait venir à lui, sur la Terre. 2001, A Space Odyssey, récit moderne, pose ainsi, dès 1968, les fondements de la science-fiction contemporaine. C’est pourtant moins par sa thématique métaphysique que par sa maîtrise cinématographiques et les technologies dont il use que Stanley Kubrick frappe le public et la critique. Il marquera ainsi la génération de cinéastes apparus dans les années 70 parmi lesquels Lucas, Spielberg, Dante, Gilliam ou Cameron, de même que la suivante, celle des années 90, à laquelle appartiennent Del Toro, Niccol, Natali, Jackson, les frères Wachowski. Avec ces cinéastes, c’est aussi l’infographie qui a intégré le cinéma. L’image et l’imagination n’ont désormais plus de limites. Le cinéaste est devenu un infographiste. L’image de synthèse est devenue nécessaire à la pré production comme au financement du film. Influencés par l’oeuvre de Kubrick, les écrivains ont, à leur tour, donné un nouveau souffle à la science-fiction. Avant les années 60, ce que l’on pouvait encore appeler des sous-genres comptaient déjà la fantasy, l’utopie, le space opera et l’anticipation. Dans les années 70, de nouveaux motifs apparaissent parmi lesquels l’écologie, l’informatique, la musique qui vont conduire, dans les années 80-90, à l’éclosion de nouvelles tendances, ou plus exactement de nouvelles mouvances tant elles évoluent, telles que le cyberpunk, le Steampunk, la hard science, la speculative fiction… Mais ce qui apparaît surtout à travers cette étude, c’est que la science-fiction, qu’elle évoque un passé qui aurait pu être, un présent alternatif, ou un futur hypothétique, parle de l’homme, de ses préoccupations, de ses désillusions et de ses espoirs, dans son présent et dans sa réalité.
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Boutault, Jessica. "Analyse des thématiques de la science-fiction de l'âge d'or aux Etats-Unis en vue d'une définition." Paris 3, 2008. http://www.theses.fr/2008PA030132.
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La science-fiction a jusqu'à présent été peu étudiée dans sa globalité en France. L'analyse des thématiques en vue d'une définition de ce genre protéiforme peut, pour des raisons techniques, se limiter à sa période majeure, dite l'"âge d'or" (approximativement de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale aux années cinquante ou soixante), aux Etats-Unis. La science-fiction de l'âge d'or se définissant par son contenu plutôt que par son style, peu d'outils d'analyse littéraire s'y appliquent avec succès. La philosophie fournit des méthodologies. La création de trois concepts complètera l'outillage critique emprunté à cette discipline. L'objectum, inspiré du structuralisme, permet de décrire la matérialité des récits (objets, personnages, décors). L'idea, dérivée des Idées de Platon, concerne la dimension cognitive (science, espace et temps, nature de l'univers et de la réalité, définition de l'humain et de ses avatars). L'ethos relève du champ de l'éthique, ce dernier incluant, au sens large, la politique (identité et conscience, rapport à autrui, moeurs, mythes, phénomènes de société, politique). Ces trois concepts et les notions qui en découlent permettent de clarifier et d'organiser les thèmes mis en scène en science-fiction. Bien qu'une définition univoque du genre, ou même d'une de ses périodes, demeure impossible, les conclusions suivantes s'imposent : la science-fiction a pour caractéristiques de mettre en scène des êtres et événements non réalistes, mais possibles en raison. Ses formes et ses thèmes reflètent les préoccupations majeures de l'époque où elle est rédigée. Toutefois, ces règles admettent toujours des exceptionsUntil now, science fiction has seldom been studied as a whole in France. The analysis of the themes of this protean genre in order to give a definition can, for technical reasons, be limited to its major period, called the "golden age" (approximately from World War II to the fifties or sixties), in the United States. Golden age science fiction being defined by its content rather than its style, few tools pertaining to literary analysis can be successfully used. Philosophy provides methodologies. The creation of three concepts will complete the critical set of tools borrowed from this discipline. The objectum, inspired from structuralism, allows to describe the materiality of the stories (things, characters, settings). The idea, derived from Plato's Ideas, concerns the cognitive dimension (science, space and time, nature of the universe and reality, definition of the human being and its avatars). The ethos comes from the field of ethics, which includes, in its largest meaning, politics (identity and consciousness, relationship with others, morals, myths, social phenomena, politics). These three concepts and the notions that stem from them allow to clarify and organize the themes presented in science fiction. Although a univocal definition of this genre, or even of one of its periods, remains impossible, the following conclusions emerge: the characteristics of science fiction are to present non-realistic, yet reasonably possible, beings or events. Its forms and themes reflect majors concerns of the period when it was written. However, these rules always allow for exceptions
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Bonati, Muñoz Catalina. "Landscape and technology in the construction of character identity in Ray Bradbury's science fiction." Tesis, Universidad de Chile, 2017. http://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/148301.
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Durkin, Daniel J. III. "Godzilla and the Cold War: Japanese Memory, Fear, and Anxiety in Toho Studio's Godzilla Franchise, 1954-2016." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu161730867674358.
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Mighall, Robert. "The brigand in the laboratory : a study of the discursive exchange between Gothic fiction and nineteenth-century medico-legal science." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683119.
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Huz, Aurélie. "L'intermédialité dans la science-fiction française de La Planète Sauvage à Kaena (1973-2003)." Thesis, Limoges, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018LIMO0078/document.
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Au début des années 1970, en France, la science-fiction constituée en subculture connaît son moment contre-culturel, à la croisée des médias et des revendications en légitimité, avec le long métrage d’animation de Laloux (La Planète sauvage, 1973), les revues de bandes dessinées « adultes » (Métal hurlant, 1975, notamment Mœbius et Bilal) et la politisation de l’écriture du genre qui se positionne par rapport à l’héritage des expériences formelles de la New Wave et à l’idéologie contestataire de Mai 68 (Andrevon, Les Hommes-machines contre Gandahar, 1969). Trente ans plus tard, dans le contexte de la révolution multimédia qui fait converger jeu vidéo, cinéma à effets spéciaux et animation de synthèse, les novellisations de Bordage tirées d’un jeu vidéo (Atlantis, 1998) et d’un dessin animé en 3D (Kaena, 2003) interrogent les rapports encore assez étanches entre littérature de science-fiction et nouveaux médias en France, à l’aube du régime numérique de consommation des fictions de masse. À partir de ce domaine et de cette période d’étude, cette thèse envisage l’intermédialité dans la science-fiction française comme construction historique et discursive produite par les acteurs, lieu de négociation des représentations du genre et de ses conflits de définition, par rapport au domaine américain, à la question industrielle et à la figure de l’auteur. Elle en identifie trois moments historiques, en comprenant le terme moment dans son sens temporel de « durée » comme dans son sens physique de « mesure d’une dynamique en synchronie ». Ce parcours historique des formes et des discours de l’intermédialité dégage les lignes évolutives du « macro-texte » français (Bréan), en montrant comment il se positionne par rapport aux logiques du « mega-text » (Broderick). Il conduit, dans un deuxième temps, à interroger comment les romans, les bandes dessinées, les dessins animés, les films et les jeux vidéo font science-fiction par rapport à cet ancrage culturel, du point de vue sémiotique, cognitif et narratif. Les modalités sémiotiques de l’effet-SF sont clarifiées par la distinction entre étrangetés de monde (novums) et étrangetés de forme (estrangement), toutes deux dépendantes de déterminations architextuelles médiatiques et génériques. La relecture des propositions de Suvin permet ainsi de construire une grille d’analyse intermédiatique de la poétique culturelle du genre. Le novum visuel fait l’objet d’une enquête spécifique, pour être ensuite confronté aux leviers verbaux de l’étrangeté et pour envisager une intersémiotique narrative du genre dans les médias plurisémiotiques (bande dessinée, cinéma, animation, jeu vidéo). Le troisième temps de la thèse fait passer au niveau des mondes, pour considérer l’articulation des étrangetés non plus dans une œuvre, mais entre des œuvres de médias différents ayant en partage une même fiction. En discutant notamment le concept de transfictionnalité (Saint-Gelais) et les travaux de Besson et de Letourneux sur les univers fictionnels contemporains massivement transmédiatiques, on distingue quatre dynamiques intermédiatiques de construction de monde (monde à bâtir, monde à varier, monde en hélice et monde à jouer). Il s’agit de cibler la spécificité du biotope français en matière d’« effet-monde » science-fictionnel, mais aussi de proposer des modèles utiles à l’analyse d’autres réalités culturellesAt the beginning of the 1970s, in France, science fiction subculture engages in its countercultural moment. Contestations and claims of legitimacy come from different media: Laloux defends a national, artisanal and engaged conception of animation (La Planète sauvage, 1973), French “bande dessinée” shows new aesthetic and graphic ambitions in magazines referring to themselves as “adult” (Metal hurlant, 1975, with a special focus on Mœbius and Bilal), and literary science fiction becomes more and more politicised, confronted to the legacy of the British New Wave and to the ideology born with Mai 68 (Andrevon, Les Hommes-machines contre Gandahar, 1969). Thirty years later, the “multimedia revolution” implies a technical and cultural convergence between videogames, hyperrealistic special effects in cinema, and 3D computer generated animation movies. In this context, the novelizations of Pierre Bordage (Atlantis, 1998, adapted from an adventure video game by Cryo Interactive, and Kaena, 2003, from a European 3D digital animation movie) question the still rare interactions between literature and “new media” in French science fiction, at the turning point of the 2000s and as we move into the digital moment of existence of popular fictions. Considering this area and this period of time, this thesis examines intermediality in French science fiction as a historical and rhetorical construction, used by the actors to promote certain representations of the genre and to take position in conflicts about generic definition, especially regarding the relations with American productions, the industrial question, and the place of the author. I identify three moments of intermediality in French science fiction during that period of time (1973-2003). I consider the term moment in its temporal sense (a duration) and in its physical one (a synchronic measure of a dynamic phenomenon). This historical analysis of intermediality’s forms and discourses shows how the French « macro-texte » (Bréan) evolves in regard to the global « mega-text » of the genre (Broderick). This leads to study secondly what I call the « SF-effect », in relation with that historical and cultural context, from a semiotic, cognitive and narrative point of view. I engage in clarifying semiotic modalities of the SF-effect by considering relations between novum (a strange diegetic reality) and estrangement (a strange formal device), both depending on media and generic architextual determinants. Discussing the famous theory of Suvin, I propose an intermedial analytical framework of the cultural poetics of science fiction. Visual SF-effect is specifically investigated, and then confronted to the verbal estrangement figures, leading to a narrative intersemiotic approach of science fiction “texts” (in a broad meaning) when they are produced by media using different systems of signs. Finally, I consider the problem of world building and how novums and estrangements intersect in productions from different media when these productions share the same fictional world. I discuss the concept of transfictionality forged by Saint-Gelais and the propositions of Besson and Letourneux about massively transmedial contemporary fictional worlds. I distinguish four intermedial “world-effects” (worlds to be built, worlds to be diversify, helical worlds, worlds to be played) in the specific French biotope of the genre, which may also offer helpful support to analyse other cultural and generic phenomena
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Dedman, Stephen. "Techronomicon (novel) ; and The weapon shop : the relationship between American science fiction and the US military (dissertation)." University of Western Australia. School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0093.
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Techronomicon Techronomicon is a science fiction novel that examines far-future military actions from several different perspectives. Human beings have colonized several planets with help from the enigmatic and more technologically advanced Zhir, who gave spaceships and habitable worlds to those they deemed suitable and their descendants. The Joint Expeditionary Force is the military arm of the Universal Faith, called in when conflicts arise that the Faith decides are beyond the local government and militia and require their intervention. Leneveldt and Roader are JEF officers assigned to Operation Techronomicon, investigating what seems to be a Zhir-built defence shield around the planet Lassana. Another JEF company sent to Kalaabhavan after the murder of the planets Confessor-General loses its CO to a land-mine, and Lieutenant Hellerman reluctantly accepts command. Chevalier, a civilian pilot, takes refugees fleeing military-run detention camps on Ararat to a biological research station on otherwise uninhabited Lila. The biologists on Lila discover a symbiote that enables humans to photosynthesize, which comes to the attention of Operation Techronomicon and the JEF's Weapons Research Division. Leneveldt and Roeder, frustrated by the lack of progress on Lassana, are sent to Lila to detain the biologists, who flee into the swamps. Hellerman's efforts to restore peace on Kalaabhavan are frustrated by the Confessors, and his company finds itself besieged by insurgents. The novel explores individuals' motives for choosing or rejecting violence and/or military service; the lessons they learn about themselves and their enemies; and the possible results of attempts to forcibly suppress ideas.
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Cornillon, Claire. "Par-delà l'Infini. La Spiritualité dans la Science-Fiction française, anglaise et américaine." Phd thesis, Université de la Sorbonne nouvelle - Paris III, 2012. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00869974.
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La science-fiction a, depuis ses origines, abordé les questions spirituelles telles que la mort, la transcendance, le sens de la vie et de la condition humaine. Au lieu de se définir comme une littérature d'idées fondée sur la science, elle est bien davantage une littérature d'images qui se fonde sur une " problématisation " de notre monde. Elle construit des configurations fictionnelles qui suscitent, chez le lecteur, un étonnement fondamental, le sense of wonder. Dès lors, elle envisage des problèmes essentiels, qu'ils soient biologiques, politiques, ou spirituels. Ouvrant à un espace-temps potentiellement infini, elle peut mettre en scène des quêtes à l'échelle du cosmos, ouvrir sur l'éternité et le temps du mythe, réinterpréter les grandes traditions religieuses pour les problématiser, ou dessiner un espace du sublime dans la confrontation avec le mystère. Il s'agit de définir la science-fiction comme un genre littéraire problématologique, qui s'appuie sur des récits et des images. Ce travail examine le traitement des questions spirituelles dans la science-fiction française, anglaise et américaine, depuis le XIXe siècle. Il se réfère à une dizaine de romans et trois films. En s'appuyant sur ce corpus spécifique de romans et de films, il s'attache à établir des cadres théoriques et à identifier des œuvres qui constituent des jalons dans l'histoire de la science-fiction et qui illustrent cette perspective problématologique.
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彭文慧 and M. W. Petti Pang. "The image of physics and physicists in modern drama: portraits and social implications." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2000. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31225056.
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Freeland, Debra Jeanette. "ODYSSEUS RE-IMAGINED: EXPERIMENTAL FICTION RESPONDS TO THE CALL OF THE ANCIENTS- TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE FULFILL CLASSIC EPIC DEVICES IN CLOUD ATLAS AND THE SILENT HISTORY." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/929.
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The timeless, lyrical poem of Ancient Greece, revered for its grand battles, supernatural forces and legendary heroes is a fading memory of a forgotten past. Many critics, scholars, and authors like Theodore Steinberg concur, “. . . “[the] twentieth-century epic” is oxymoronic, the epic died with Milton” (10). Yet, the echoes of the past resound in the present as the characteristics and literary conventions of the Homeric epic are easily found in contemporary genres, including fantasy, sci-fi, and dystopian fiction. What has emerged is not a repeat of the past, but something different, something new. The influence of science and technology is apparent even to the most relaxed reader. Contemporary writers have adapted forms of technology, communication, and modern science to perform as the traditional literary devices of the epic genre.
In his book, Epic in American Culture, Christopher N. Phillips remarks that ,”Epic did not die with Milton . . . it developed new power and shape. . .” as writers dismissed the traditional formats to allow for artistic growth advancing the use and understanding of epic, “. . . the new insights, literary and cultural history that emerge once synchronic, monolithic definition of form are abandoned-the surprises in the archive of American literary engagements with the epic form are myriad” (4,10). This release of boundaries allowed space to create, one that intersects with specific moments in time and sociocultural influence, allowing the inclusion of modern understanding and experiences. I found a kernel in Catherine Morley’s book, The Quest for Epic, where she examines the influence of the epic on the American novel, and the means with which writers continue to approach and engage epic , “. . . compulsively and consciously appropriated and reinvented aspects of the antique and the modern European epic traditions to advance their own aesthetic designs” (13). Furthering the writer’s vision is only part of the epic’s adaptation, and the formulation of other genres, including sci-fi and fantasy, provide many reference points in its long evolutionary cycle. Why the need for new genres? What did writers have to address to warrant these spaces? Technology was one answer. Technological advancements placed a demand upon writers, stirring the authors to push against canonical boundaries. The cultural importance of the mythology surrounding the epic is infused, and the result is an expanded, (dare I say new?), technology rich, contemporary epic. Same genus, different species.
So, what does this new cutting-edge insertion look like? How does it function? What role does technology play in contemporary figuration's of the epic? How does modern science perform in ancient conventions? Can they maintain the ethos of the traditional Homeric epic? This thesis will investigate through literary scholarship and theory, Homer’s classics, Iliad and The Odyssey, and two contemporary novels, David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and The Silent History by Eli Horowitz, Matthew Derby, and Kevin Moffett.
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Hunninghausen, Carlos Guilherme. "Imagined space : representations of the future city in science fiction short stories by Forster, Ballard and Gibson /." Florianópolis, SC, 1997. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/77337.
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