In the opening chapter, he suggests that H.G. Rieder argues that sf, like any cultural production, is a product of both historical context and individual creativity, and its ideological offerings can therefore be compensatory, critical, or both.įrom this foundation, Rieder develops arguments that demonstrate a careful engagement with early sf texts.

Additionally, his method avoids the move to demonize sf as repository of juvenile ideological propaganda while also avoiding the tendency to glorify sf as an essentially critical or utopian genre. The threefold trajectory of his approach-to consider how sf “lives and breathes” in a colonial context, to examine how it “reflects or contributes to” this context, and to analyze ways in which it may “enact” challenges to colonial ideology-offers a methodological foundation that goes well beyond merely reading the influence of colonialism on early sf (3). Rieder’s aim is not simply to establish a relationship between sf and colonialism instead, he sets out to “decipher” in much greater detail the genre’s mixed and contradictory colonial messages (3). Rieder goes much further: he posits a fundamental relationship between sf and colonial history, and this assertion (along with his welcome unwillingness to apologize for sf as a legitimate object of study) allows him to accomplish a much deeper critical analysis of sf’s entanglement with colonial history and discourse. This is a striking introduction less ambitious studies might settle upon the basic proposition that colonialism provides a determinate historical context for emergent sf. It is not a matter of asking whether but of determining precisely how and to what extent the stories engage colonialism” (3). He opens with the aggressive assertion that “no informed reader can doubt that allusions to colonial history and situations are ubiquitous features of early science fiction motifs and plots. Reider begins from the axiom that “colonialism is a significant historical context for science fiction” (2), and he notes that sf emerges in the late nineteenth century during the most aggressive phase of Western imperial expansion sf first becomes visible in imperialist countries (primarily France and England), and then it quickly gains popularity in other nations pursuing imperial projects (including the United States, Germany, and Russia). At a time when the world is witnessing new variations of old imperial ideals and practices, Edward Said’s call (in Culture and Imperialism ) for a sustained examination of the relationships between cultural production and imperial practice is more relevant than ever, and Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction stands as an exemplary stride in this direction. 1 Given the vitality of postcolonial studies and the contemporary resurgence of American economic, military, and political imperialism in the Middle East, it is no surprise that sf scholarship is moving in this direction. $24.95 pbk.Ĭolonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction stands beside Patricia Kerslake’s Science Fiction and Imperialism (2007) in its refreshing and long-overdue examination of the relationships between science fiction and empire. Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction. Higgins Colonialism and Ideological Fantasy

The emergence axiom verge 2