The Shape of Things to Come? Politics of Reproduction in the Contemporary Science Fiction Series “Battlestar Galactica”

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingvil Hellstrand
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Battlestar Galactica ◽  
Contemporary Science ◽  
To Come

Biology and Manners

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
American Literature ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
Fan Studies ◽  
Contemporary American Literature ◽  
Contemporary Science ◽  
The Us ◽  
Main Series ◽  
Current Concerns ◽  
The Red Queen

This volume is a new collection of scholarly essays on the US science fiction and fantasy writer Lois McMaster Bujold. The collection argues for the significant contributions Bujold’s works make to feminist and queer thought, disability studies, and fan studies. In addition, it suggests the importance of Bujold to contemporary American literature. The volume continues the establishment of Bujold as an important author of contemporary science fiction and fantasy. It argues that her corpus spans the distance between two full arcs of US feminism and has anticipated or responded to several of its current concerns in ways that invite or even require theoretical exploration. As well as papers on earlier work in the main series (the Vorkosigan Saga and the ‘Worlds of the Five Gods’ novels The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls), the collection also presents work on recent publications such as The Sharing Knife sequence; the ‘Penric and Desdemona’ novellas; and the recent Vorkosigan Saga novel Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. The collection deepens feminist research in Bujold studies by incorporating queer and disability studies perspectives; and includes historiographic retracing of scholarship on Bujold’s work.

“In search of our better selves”: Totem Transfer Narratives and Indigenous Futurities

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dallas Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
The Self ◽  
Intergenerational Transfer ◽  
Canadian Literature ◽  
Indigenous Knowledges ◽  
Contemporary Science ◽  
White Settlers ◽  
Sustainable Futures

Much contemporary science fiction urges us to focus on eco-activism and sustainable futures in order to prevent environmental catastrophe. From a critical Indigenous and anticolonial perspective, however, the question becomes “for whom are these futures sustainable”? Set in a nondescript desert dystopia, George Miller's film Mad Max: Fury Road 2015 alludes to the westerns of yesteryear and the Australian “outback”—spaces coded as menacing in their resistance to being tamed by settler-colonial interests. This article charts how Miller's film, while preoccupied with issues pertaining to global warming and ecological collapse, replicates and reifies settler replacement narratives, or what Canadian literature scholar Margery Fee has referred to as “totem transfer” narratives (1987). In these narratives, ultimately the “natives” transfer their knowledges and then disappear from view, helping white settlers remedy the self-created ills that currently threaten their worlds and enabling them to inherit the land. In the second half, I also consider how Indigenous futurist texts offer decolonizing potentials that refute the replacement narratives that persist in settler-colonial contexts. In particular, I examine how Indigenous cultural production emphasizes the importance of the intergenerational transfer of Indigenous knowledges and refuses the hermeneutic of reconciliation that seeks to discipline Indigenous futures in the service of a settler-colonial present.

scholarly journals American Telefantasy: An Introduction

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Halliday ◽  
Rhys Owain Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Doctor Who ◽  
Fair Share ◽  
Buffy The Vampire Slayer ◽  
Battlestar Galactica ◽  
The Walking Dead ◽  
Park Avenue ◽  
General Capacity ◽  
True Blood ◽  
Horror Story

Television schedules are rife with Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. The re-launched Doctor Who and its prime-time Saturday night stablemate, Merlin spearhead the rise of contemporary British Telefantasy (Being Human, Misfits et al.).  Meanwhile, their American equivalents attract audiences of millions, extensive media attention and, since Peter Dinklage’s Emmy and Golden Globe-winning performance in Game of Thrones, widespread critical acclaim through mainstream industry awards.  Histories of “quality” television are awash with examples of American Telefantasy that have left an indelible impression on popular cultural (and even socio-political) imaginaries; Star Trek, The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost, and Battlestar Galactica all being enduringly popular examples. As American television networks prepare to launch their all-important “Fall” schedules, ushering in a new year of programming, it is evident that Telefantasy will continue to garner its fair share of TV viewers’ attention – whether due to hotly-anticipated debuts (666 Park Avenue, Arrow, The Neighbors, Revolution), finales (Fringe), provocative content (American Horror Story, True Blood, The Walking Dead, or a general capacity to entertain, bewitch or amuse (Community), Falling Skies, Grimm, Once Upon a Time, Supernatural).

scholarly journals Bisexual erasure in queer sci-fi "utopias"

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Serafini
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Contemporary Science ◽  
Queer Representation

I discuss the paradoxes of queer representation in contemporary science fiction television by analyzing bisexual female protagonists of the CW's The 100 (2014–), BBC America's Orphan Black (2013–), and SyFy's Wynonna Earp (2016–). Queer female fans engage in femslash to make sense of the utopic intentions of executive producers who attempt to create better queer representation through labelless premises that de-emphasize queerness.

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