Boundaries and Otherness in Science Fiction: We Cannot Escape the Human Condition
Journal Title: Text Matters. A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture - Year 2018, Vol 8, Issue 8
Abstract
The article explores the construction of boundaries, alterity and otherness in modern science-fiction (SF) films. Boundaries, understood as real state borders, territoriality and sovereignty, as well as the construction of the other beyond an imagined border and delimited space, have a significant meaning in the dystopian settings of SF. Even though SF topics are not bound to the contemporary environment, be it of a historical, technical or ethical nature, they do relate to the present-day world and transcend our well-known problems. Therefore, SF offers a pronounced discourse about current social challenges under extreme conditions such as future technological leaps, encounters with the alien other or the end of the world. At the same time the genre enables us to play through future challenges that might really happen. Films like Equilibrium (2002), Code 46 (2003), Children of Men (2006) and District 9 (2009) show that in freely constructed cinematic settings we are not only unable to escape from our border conflicts, but quite the contrary, we take them everywhere with us, even to an alternative present or into the future, where new precarious situations of otherness are constructed.
Authors and Affiliations
Isabella Hermann
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP417947
- DOI 10.1515/texmat-2018-0013
- Views 78
- Downloads 0
Oppressive Faces of Whiteness in Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress
Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress contributes significantly to the literary debate on the definition of whiteness. The socio-historical construction of whiteness emerging from the novel is amplified by white imagery...
Transgression of Postindustrial Dissonance and Excess: (Re)valuation of Gothicism in Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive
The paper gives insight into the revaluation of popular Gothic aesthetics in Jim Jarmusch’s 2014 production Only Lovers Left Alive. Drawing on critical theory and the postmodern theoretical framework, the article suggest...
Here Be Monsters: Imperialism, Knowledge and the Limits of Empire
It has become a truism in discussions of Imperialist literature to state that the British empire was, in a very significant way, a textual exercise. Empire was simultaneously created and perpetuated through a proliferati...
“It’s not just a dream. There is a storm coming!”: Financial Crisis, Masculine Anxieties and Vulnerable Homes in American Film
Despite the Gothic’s much-discussed resurgence in mainstream American culture, the role the late 2000s financial crisis played in sustaining this renaissance has garnered insufficient critical attention. This article fin...
“Consider Yourself One of Us”: The Dickens Musical on Stage and Screen
Charles Dickens’s work has been taken and adapted for many different ends. Quite a lot of attention has been given to film and television versions of the novels, many of which are very distinguished. The stage and screen...