Legacies of marxism? Contemporary African science fiction and the concern with literary realism

Abstract

ABSTRACT The number of science fiction (SF) publications written by African authors skyrocketed in the new millennium and, alongside it, a debate on the form and sociological functions of that genre. In this essay, it is argued that this pan-African phenomenon of contemporary African SF, as well as the debate about it, may be understood in part as an attempt to come to terms with Africa’s Marxist-cultural inheritance and, particularly, literary realisms. However, this does not lead to the dissociation of African SF from Marxist realisms due to the way African SF was theorized. In fact, the negotiation of literary realisms is also registered in African SF works through the formal and intra-diegetic engagement with the problem of realism and the use of realist methods. In support of this thesis, the article undertakes short readings of several contemporary African SF short stories, novellas, and novels.