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TEHRAN – Throughout history, humans have had a strong interest in imagining tomorrow’s world and its potential. The concept has been imaginatively translated into literature through the genre of science fiction. Unlike utopian visions, science fiction stories often depict a future that is far from peaceful or perfect, with scenarios such as alien invasions, evil empires, authoritarian dystopias, and the exploration and colonization of new territories. It is often depicted and sometimes closely resembles the past. than the future.
alien other
The “other” has always been one of the constant elements of science fiction. In these movies, non-human beings such as robots and aliens often play the villains. Encounters with the Other on the pages and screens of science fiction texts and films reveal yet another way of understanding the genre’s relationship to imperialism.
Kevin Barrett, a Muslim-American author and analyst, said in an interview with the Tehran Times that Hollywood’s use of aliens to represent “other” nations and cultures is a reflection of America’s He said it reflected historical experience. “The United States was founded primarily by Protestant Scandinavians who viewed ‘red-skinned savages’ and ‘primitive blacks’ as fundamentally different from themselves.”
He said the taboo on miscegenation reflects that “othering.”
As Christine Cornia points out in her book Science Fiction Cinema: Between Fantasy and Reality: “Science fiction aliens, monsters, and robots may provide examples of otherness against which expressions of ‘proper’ human subjectivity may be established and interrogated.” It could also cause problems. ”
In postcolonial studies, the “other” is not only positioned as an abnormality of imperialist norms, but also has an important meaning due to the denial of “individuality,” which is the right of norms alone. In science fiction, ideas about human subjectivity and identity have traditionally been established in the comparison of self (human) and other (non-human) characters.
This dichotomy can be seen in contemporary Hollywood science fiction films, particularly in the portrayal of the Na’vi aliens in Cameron’s Avatar (2009) and the shrimp in Blomkamp’s District 9 (2009). , can also be seen in the people who live there. Abrams’ Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), a character from the planet Nibiru.
Barrett argues that as the United States expands into a global empire, it encounters a need to “otherize” foreign peoples and cultures to justify killing, exploiting, and stealing their resources. He explained that he continued.
“This extreme ‘othering’ of the American national identity is largely responsible for Hollywood’s use of aliens as symbols of other human nations and cultures,” the authors note.
Dreams of conquest, nightmares of invasion
Science fiction, in particular, has expressed stories centered around imperialism and colonialism. In his book Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, John Reader writes that most scholars agree that the period of most fervent imperialist expansion in the second half of the 19th century was also a critical period for the emergence of the genre. He said he believed that. ). ”
“SF first came to prominence in the countries most deeply involved in the imperialist project, namely France and the United Kingdom, and then, as these countries also became increasingly engaged in imperialist competition, the United States , it has also become popular in Germany and Russia,” he added. .
Early science fiction is often inevitably intertwined with Euro-American imperial fantasies. It expresses the fantasy of empire through dreams of conquest and nightmares of invasion and destruction. Works depicting encounters between European travelers and non-Europeans, such as Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), are major pre-historical works of the genre. forming a part.
Vampires and Martians, critics of colonialism
Evolutionary theory and anthropology are deeply intertwined with colonial ideology and history, and are particularly important to early science fiction from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. They also serve as a framework for the social Darwinian ideology that permeated his early science fiction.
As Reeder points out, England was one of the colonial countries where science fiction began to emerge. An iconic example of his science fiction influenced by colonialism is H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1898), one of the most important science fiction novels. At the beginning of the novel, Wells asks English readers to compare the Martian invasion of Earth with the genocide of the Tasmanian natives by Europeans, and challenges the colonizers to imagine themselves as the colonized. ing.
“Before we judge them harshly, we must remember how ruthless and utter destruction our own species wreaked, not only on animals like the vanished bison and dodo, but also on inferior species. The Tasmanians, although similar to humans, were completely wiped out in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants in the same spirit as the Martians. If we fight, are we such apostles of mercy as to complain?”
Here, the conquest of Mars is depicted as analogous to, and even as justifiable retaliation for, British colonial genocide. As they visited, so will we.
Barrett believes that H.G. Wells appears to have highlighted the appearance and behavior of aliens as inhuman as a critique of the inhumanity of British colonialism.
“The ‘stiff-upper-lipped’ British people went out of their way to avoid meeting their colonial subjects on the basis of human equality.” He said that for many “natives,” the British were rather depicted in “The War of the Worlds.” He explained that it must have resembled a Martian.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) is another story that metaphorizes and criticizes British colonialism. Dracula is a symbolic alien who is more racially masculine than his victims. His vampirism functions as a predatory racial alchemy that threatens the presumed superiority of white racial identity.
Stephen Arata’s essay “The Occidental Tourist” argues that Dracula can be read as a critique of British imperialism, especially given Stoker’s position as a subject transplanted to Ireland.
“In Count Dracula, Victorian readers were able to see their culture’s imperialist ideology reflected in a kind of monster. Dracula’s journey from Transylvania to England , could be read as a reversal of British imperial exploitation of “weaker” races, including the Irish. ”
Barrett argues that science fiction emerged as a branch of literature that celebrates science and the power it brings to conquer and colonize, while at the same time criticizing the scientific worldview and its attendant imperial and colonial adventures. emphasized.
to be continued.
AH/SAB
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