Posted: December 27th, 2014

Historical Perspective on Science Fiction

Historical Perspective on Science Fiction

Order Description

This module approaches the concepts of time and space through the speculative within visual cultures and art practices. It focuses on the aesthetic and political

practices within the genre of science fiction, with its spectacular imaginations and inventive possibilities, with its narratives and visuals collapsing and spanning

time, reality, technology and the human condition. We will analyse visual cultures and art practices with and through theories of the imagination as a collective

process and the spatial politics of time and explore what science fiction has to do with colonialism, migration, with diaspora and improvisation.
In this first part we pay attention to the colonial history of science fiction – or science fiction as a colonial project – before we turn to resistant forms of

speculative narratives and practices, before we explore the question of science fiction from a post-colonial perspective. By doing so we will consider science fiction

not as an attempt to predict the future, but rather as Samuel R. Delany argues, as offering a (political) distortion of the present. We consequently want to analyse

visual cultures and art that take us to different spaces, to improvised spaces, that seek to imagine the world differently, while simultaneously being attentive to the

experiences of cultural dislocation, estrangement and alienation – as articulated in the concept of Afrofuturism – that continue to define the African and African-

diasporic present.

1 INTRODUCTION: TIME (Oct 1)
We will begin the course by discussing time as a crucial element of the speculative. We will turn to a theory of time and discuss it in relation to images of time,

especially timelines.
Required Reading:???Giordano Nanni (2012). The Colonisation of Time. Ritual, Routine and Resistance in
the British Empire. Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, pp. 1-24. [READER]
Suggested further readings:???Daniel Rosenberg and Anthony Grafton (2010). Cartographies of Time. A History of
the Timeline. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Visuals: timelines
2 SPACE (Oct 8)
Equally important to the imagination and the speculative is the concept of space which we will discuss, especially in relation to European expansion into other parts

of the world.
Required Reading:???Anne McClintock (1996). Imperial Leather. Race, Gender and Sexuality in the
Colonial Context. New York & London: Routledge, pp.1-17; 30-31. (available here: http://selforganizedseminar.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/mcclintock_imperial-

leather.pdf)
Suggested further readings:
•    J. Christopher (1994). The Atlas of Apartheid. London and New York: Routledge and ?Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, pp. 1-8; 103-115.
•    Edward W. Soja (1989). Postmodern Geographies. The Reassertion of Space in ?Critical Social Theory. London and New York: Verso, pp. 10-42. Visuals: maps
3 COLONIALISM AND SCIENCE FICTION (Oct 15)
In this seminar we discuss some of the foundational myths of science fiction: the ‘other’, strange and foreign land. We will discuss why inventing places elsewhere

does not necessarily open up new possibilities, a “new world” that becomes available for the “old” one. We explore why science fiction – beginning with George Méliès

“Le voyage dans la lune” (1902) – is often very much grounded in an idea of expansion, of transgression of boundaries, of colonial conquest.

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Required Reading:???John Rieder (2008) Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction. Middletown,
CT: Wesleyan University Press, pp. 1-33. [READER]
Film: Georges Méliès (dir.) Le voyage dans la lune
Suggested further readings:???Jessica Langer (2011). Postcolonialism and Science Fiction. Basingstoke and New

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York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 11-55.
RACE AND SCIENCE FICTION (Oct 22)
Having explored the colonial history in the context of science fiction we turn to a number of sci-fi classics this week and discuss them in relation to their politics

of racialization.
Required Reading:???Adilifu Nama (2008). Black Space. Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film. Austin:
University of Texas Press, pp. 10-41. [READER]
Suggested further readings:

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??Isiah Lavender III (2011): Race in American Science Fiction. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, p. 1-53.
RADICAL IMAGINATION AND COLLECTIVITY (Oct 29)
In this session we want to approach the concept of imagination theoretically and discuss what the speculative has to do with social movements and collective efforts

for political change.
Required Reading:???Max Haiven and Alex Khasnabish (2010). ‘What is Radical Imagination? A Special
Issue.’ In: Affinities: A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture and Action, Vol. 4/2: i- xxxvii. (available for download here:

http://affinitiesjournal.org/index.php/affinities/article/view/70/174 or, alternatively, to read here:

http://affinitiesjournal.org/index.php/affinities/article/view/70/187)
Suggested further readings:

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???
Max Haiven and Alex Khasnabish (2014). The Radical Imagination. London: Zed Books and Halifax&Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing.?Robin D.G. Kelley (2003). Freedom Dreams:

The Black Radical Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press.
THE POLITICS OF DISIDENTIFICATION (Nov 12)
In this seminar session we will explore the political context in which some of the key Black science-fictional texts emerged in the US. We will discuss the politics of

the Black Panther Party and Black Nationalism in the 1970s. These will be explored alongside José Esteban Muñoz’s concept of ‘disidentification’ which offers a

performative model of subjectivity that
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critically reflects on identity and identification and forces us to think beyond attached dichotomies.
Required Reading:

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???
Kara Keeling (2007). The Witch’s Flight. The Cinematic, the Black Femme, and the Image of Common Sense. Durham and London: Duke University Press, pp. 68-94. [READER]?

José Esteban Muñoz (1997). ‘“The White to Be Angry”: Vaginal Davis’s Terrorist Drag.’ In: Social Text, No. 52/53, pp. 80-96. [READER]
AFROFTURISM (Nov 19)
In this session we will discuss Afrofuturism as an aesthetic of alienation that embodies an intense proximity between arts and critical theory, and research as a space

for activism. According to Alondra Nelson it is „a coherent mode of critical inquiry“. We explore the question of what delineates Afrofuturism from other futurisms?
Required Reading:???Mark Dery (1994). ‘Black to the Future: Interviews with Samuel R. Delany, Greg
Tate, and Tricia Rose.’ In: Flame Wars. The Discourse of Cyberculture. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 179-222. [READER]
Film: John Akomfrah (dir.), Last Angel of History. Suggested further readings:

???
Lisa Yaszek (2006). ‘Afrofuturism, Science Fiction, and the History of the Future.’ In: Socialism and Democracy 20/3, pp. 41-60 (Available here:

http://sdonline.org/42/afrofuturism-science-fiction-and-the-history-of-the-future) Nelson, Alondra (2002). ‘Making the Impossible Possible: An Interview with Nalo

Hopkinson.’ In: Social Text 71, Vol. 20/2, pp. 97-113.
TECHNOLOGY AND RACE (Nov 26)

In this session we will explore the role race plays in the discourse on technology, especially in relation to the potentialities of new media and the digital. We will

talk about the much- debated digital divide and discuss some of the promises the digital poses to overcome some of the pitfalls of identity politics. We will further

discuss the question of technology in relation to one of the key afrofuturist novels, Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild”.
Required Reading:???Alondra Nelson (2002). ‘Introduction: Future Texts.’ In: Social Text 71, Vol. 20/2, pp.
1-15. [READER]
Novel: Bloodchild by Octavia Butler (available here: http://boblyman.net/englt392/texts/bloodchild.pdf)
Suggested further readings:

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Lisa Nakamura and Peter A. Chow-White (eds.) (2012). Race After the Internet. New York & London: Routledge, pp. 1-18.?Anne Everett (2002). ‘The Revolution Will Be

Digitized: Afrocentricty and the Digital Public Sphere.’ In: Social Text, 71, Vol. 20/2, pp. 125-146.
(Available here for free download: http://courses.washington.edu/imt550/win12/afrocentricity%20in%20digital%20publi c%20sphere.pdf)
THE FUTURE OF WHITENESS (Dec 3)
When talking about race we tend to focus almost exclusively on Blackness. In this session we discuss why it is equally important to talk about whiteness. We explore

texts and visuals in their speculative dealings with white subjectivity and the political implications the narratives effect.
Required Reading:???Novel: Abdourahman A. Waberi (2009) In the United States of Africa. Transl. by
David and Nicole Ball. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. (extract) [READER] Film: Simon Rittmeier (dir.), Drexciya?Suggested further readings:

???
Richard Dyer (1997). White: Essays on Race and Culture. London and New York: Routledge.?Bernardine Evaristo (2009). Blonde Roots. London: Penguin. (Novel)
SUPERHEROES (Dec 10)
In this session we turn to comics and their references to superheroes, but also their references to concrete historical figures, icons, if you want – and their

political and social strategies for a better world to come.
Required Reading:
•    Robin Rosenberg (ed.) (2013) What is a Superhero? New York: Oxford University ?Press, p.3. [READER]
•    Comic: Oreet Ashery and Larissa Sansour (2009) The Novel of Nonel and Vovel. ?Vicenza: Edizioni Charta, pp. 121-168. [READER] ?Film: Cedric Ido (dir.), Twaaga

?Suggested further readings:
•    Robin Rosenberg (ed.) (2013) What is a Superhero? New York: Oxford University ?Press (Introduction and chapter 1).
•    Sankara, Thomas (2007). Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, ?1983-1987. Pathfinder Press, 2007.

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