Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the (Imagined) Future

Abstract

As a genre, science fiction productions — whether cinematic or literary — are based on earthly narratives of colonization. The imaginative impulse informing its productions takes from and revises earth history, putting it out there in a (de)familiarized but cognitively plausible and contextually recognizable "future." There are three basic models of science fiction colonial narratives — the explorative, domesticative, and combative — each of which represents a progressive stage in a continuum motivated by more efficient means of colonization. Most contemporary science fiction productions are of the combative model, which reveals a postmodern penchant for deflating space and collapsing time, for making the alien familiar and the familiar alien, the universe known and mapable. The article examines a number of earthly colonial narratives, early and recent science fiction films, and schemes for colonizing the universe found on the Internet.