Genre Of Fiction Research Articles

Allotropes and Speculative Obligation: SF in Southern Africa

ABSTRACT: This article focuses on speculative fiction written by authors from Southern Africa to examine the nature and effect of genre in fiction from a non-European context. In particular, I claim that Yvette Lisa Ndlovu (Zimbabwe), Namwali Serpell (Zambia), Tlotlo Tsamaase (Botswana), and Nick Wood (Zambia) turn to alternate history to move beyond the stasis of a utopia/dystopia binary. Thus, by creating new settings for both social and intimate interactions within what I call allotropic temporality, a term developed in the article, these authors reestablish a temporal arc: futural possibilities that ensure aesthetic and ethical alternatives by offering nurturing kinship relations and flourishing communities.

Filmic Representation of ‘A Community with a Shared Future for Mankind’ in The Wandering Earth Series

Over the past 4 years, The Wandering Earth series has garnered significant acclaim and recognition within the market and film festival circuits. This study examines The Wandering Earth series, including The Wandering Earth and The Wandering Earth II, through the lens of ‘a community with a shared future for mankind’. Utilising qualitative content analysis, it explores the representation of global cooperation in these Chinese science fiction films, transcending conventional Western-centric narratives. The study reveals a unified international community by analysing film narratives, characters and visual symbolism, focusing significantly on China and non-Western countries’ roles in saving humanity. This approach aligns with global governance and post-colonial theories, highlighting the series’ challenge to Western hegemony and its contribution to the discourse on China’s growing cultural industry influence. This research enriches understanding of Chinese cinema’s role in shaping cultural values and international cooperation, emphasising the potential of the science fiction genre to reimagine global dynamics from a non-Western perspective. Its implications extend to enhancing the global understanding of China’s cultural narratives and contribute to the international dialogue on the evolution and influence of Chinese science fiction films.

Of robots and ancient mysteries: Representations of Jōmon figurines as cultural heritage and popular culture

Final Jōmon ceramic figurines known as shakōki dogū have been incorporated into popular culture for decades in Japan, but few studies have examined how these sources represent shakōki dogū or how they contribute to public meaning making about the past. Using perspectives from archaeological representation studies, this paper explores trends in when, where, and how shakōki dogū appear in Japanese media, such as anime, manga, and games. In didactic sources, shakōki dogū are predominantly characterized as female figurines connected to Jōmon ritual and Japanese cultural origins. While the dogū observed here were often depicted as ancient and magical, they were more likely to be masculine, antagonistic, and generic symbols of a distant past, rather than references to the Jōmon or Japanese heritage. This departure from a divine feminine interpretation is discussed in relation to the video game industry, science fiction and fantasy genres, and Arahabaki in the popular mind.

Everything and Nothing

Kathe Koja’s strange horror novel The Cipher (1991) is a peculiar genre fiction that immediately attracts the attention of both horror connoisseurs and philosophers alike. It is at once a visceral, psychological horror and a theoretically intriguing dilemma. It follows the fascinating and horrific events that transpire after a disc of pure nothingness opens up in the protagonist’s home, consuming the lives of the characters just as it does the plot. This non-object pushes readers to discern its peculiar ontology but yields, as one would expect, nothing. This essay reads The Cipher through Martin Heidegger’s equally unorthodox version of the nothing (das Nichts), demonstrating how Heideggerian metaphysical thought can help to illuminate the novel’s strange nothingness, and how Koja’s novel can help us to see the horror inherent in Heidegger’s philosophy. It suggests that horror may be found not in the nihilistic lack of meaning but in our “imprisonment” in meaning.

The future of tourism: an interview with Dr Daniel Wright about the genre of science fiction

PurposeAs the Journal of Tourism Futures celebrates its 10th Anniversary, Dr Ian Yeoman (Hotel Management School Leeuwarden) interviews Dr Daniel Wright (University of Central Lancashire) about the future genre of science fiction and his publications.Design/methodology/approachA personal interview.FindingsScience fiction research is about asking difficult questions, the questions we feel uncomfortable asking and answering. Science fiction is a powerful medium to imagine the future, which students love as it is provocative. In the interview, Dr Wright reflects upon his own writing from immortality to the end of the world.Originality/valueThe power of science fiction, as a genre of transformation, skepticism and thinking out of the box, is often missing in futures studies and scenario planning.

THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF TURKISH SHORT FILMS RELEASED ON MUBI

49 Turkish short films published on the MUBI platform were analysed and it was determined that the majority of them were in the fiction genre (78%) and a few were in the documentary genre (22%). In the analysed films, the problem of gender equality in the directing position was observed and it was revealed that the majority of the directors were male. In terms of language use, it was determined that Turkish was dominant (59.18%) and some films did not contain any dialogue (22.45%). In the gender distribution of the main characters, it was observed that female and male characters were used with similar frequency. It was observed that the majority of the films were shot in the Marmara Region and the geographical diversity of Turkey was reflected in the cinema. In the thematic analysis, social and psychological problems came to the forefront, and it was determined that social issues such as migration and women's rights were intensively handled (58.16%) and psychological themes such as melancholy and loneliness (18.36%). In conclusion, it has been observed that Turkish short films published on MUBI bring together various aspects of Turkish cinema with the audience through their language diversity, gender representation, geographical distribution and rich thematic content.

Мировоззренческий статус фэнтези: историко-философский аспект

The author examines the influence of the phenomenon of fantasy on individuals and society through the lens of its historical emergence and development. The author argues for the necessity and importance of analysing this phenomenon, as it has deep historical roots and context, and has a profound impact on contemporary individuals and society as a whole. The structure of mythology's influence on people and the transmission of culture is, according to the author, closely linked to the nature of creativity and social adaptation, as demonstrated by examples from both ancient and Norse myths. The author shows that the development and formation of fantasy as a part of culture takes place within, but is not limited to, these historical events and processes. Fantasy absorbs the rediscovered romance of the Middle Ages and the influence of the preceding genre of science fiction. The spirit of the age demands a revision of the axiological foundations of modern humanity, based on the creative functionality of past meanings. This allows for a discussion of the close connection between fantasy and the processes of individual development and solidarity, as well as the formation of the individual as a subject. The author concludes that fantasy is a new response, a consolation and a benefit rooted in myth, fairy tales and medieval romance.

Eschatology of the Singularity: “Deus ex machina” in the Construction of Film Images of the Future

The mixed assessment by critics and theorists of the deus ex machina artistic device common in popular cinema requires a more thorough study of its dramatic and narrative functions in science fiction films. It is in the construction of film images of the future that this technique is combined with a fantastic assumption, expressing the narrator’s attitude towards artistic narration and becoming an argument in dialogue with the viewer. The study reveals, based on the analysis of empirical material, the multifunctionality of deus ex machina using the example of the development of the theme of technological singularity in cinema. The analysis of films significant for the development of the science fiction (Sci-Fi) genre and the most popular television series among science fiction fans today demonstrates the evolution of the deus ex machina technique. In addition to the trivial function of arbitrary resolution of peripeteia, it acquires various dramatic functions (accelerating or slowing down the rhythm of action, connecting parts of the plot in a large form), obtains the properties of scaling and fragmentation, synchrony and asynchrony with a fantastic assumption, adding complex narrative functions to the toolkit of expressive means, through which the narrator reveals or, on the contrary, conceals his attitude to artistic reality, involving the viewer into the game of probable meanings. The authors of the article come to the conclusion that the theme of technological singularity has been penetrating cinema since its appearance in the work of L. Lumiere and determines, depending on the narrator’s attitude to the topic, the vector of techno-skepticism or techno-optimism in the eschatological dilemma that characterizes the cosmogony of traditional religions. The article is of interest to researchers and film lovers and contributes to the study of artistic and scientific communication.

Identity Crises and the Impact of 9/11: A Post-Colonial Study of the Reluctant Fundamentalist and Khuda Kay Lye

The current study explores the devastating aftershocks and identity crises caused by 9/11. It furthermore, presents the upheavals through two different forms of literature: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid and the cinematic film Khuda Kay Liye by Shoaib Mansoor. The study employs a post-colonial lens, utilizing the concept of marginality to examine identity crises and the traumatic aftermath of 9/11. In addition, the study highlights the main characters of both the literary forms: novel and film, demonstrating how they face marginalization at various levels—cultural, religious, and international. The background of the study encompasses the Afghan-Russian war in 1979 and the 9/11 attacks, which profoundly affected Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, fueling terrorism and raising questions about identity. Religious figures, as the research uncovers through the character of Changez in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, were often labeled as terrorists. On the other hand, Mansoor, Maryam, and Sarmad are marginalized in Khuda Kay Liye. Mansoor faces racial prejudice in the USA, while Sarmad and Maryam encounter religious extremism in Pakistan. While weaving together the theme of identity crises, the study adopts the framework of marginality, a significant aspect of post-colonial literature. With a clear understanding of the issues, the study utilizes post-colonial theory, using Edward Said's seminal work, Orientalism. Additionally, the researcher recognizes the significance of marginality, which is central to both the genre fiction and the films The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Khuda Kay Liye.

In between the writerly and the readerly: Utopia and metafiction in Abe Kazushige’s Individual Projection

Elaborating on Barthes’ famous distinction, this article examines the relationship between the writerly and the readerly in Abe Kazushige’s novel Individual Projection (Indivijuaru purojekushon). The ‘writerly’ (scriptible) designates an open-ended, playful narrative, giving free rein to the interpretation of the reader who thus becomes a co-writer of the text. The readerly (lisible), by contrast, implies authority and redundancy: it imposes a meaning or message, thus turning the reader into a consumer rather than producer of the text. I argue that Abe’s novel is built upon an internal tension between the openness of the writerly and the more assertive and ethical message of the readerly. The first two parts of this essay focus on the writerly side of the text. Individual Projection could be first described as a parody (1. Political Utopia and Genre fiction as Parody in Individual Projection): through its unreliable narrator, the novel toys with stereotypes associated with political utopia and genre fiction. Such distancing with clichés destabilises the text and opens a free space of interpretation for the reader (2. Metafiction as Writerly Text: When the Reader Writes). Yet, the novel ends with a final metatextual reversal which reshapes our understanding of the story and redefines the reader’s own relationship to the text (3. Metafiction: Revenge of the Author?). This end illustrates the paradoxical nature of metafiction in its relationship to the reader: its apparent semantic openness can also be a means to assert the author’s authority over the text to convey a theoretical or philosophical message. Here, my own understanding of Individual Projection challenges Azuma Hiroki’s interpretation of Abe’s novel. Azuma saw in the openness of Individual Projection another illustration of his own theory both describing and advocating a free consumption of fiction, relying much more on the logic of recycling and recombination than on the linear path of the plot. If Azuma’s interpretation sheds interesting light on the agency devoted to the reader in Individual Projection, it yet fails to apprehend the potentially critical message of the text: Abe’s novel also suggests a pessimistic view of contemporary’s hyperreality which seems quite antithetical to Azuma’s own eulogy of postmodernity.

Science Fiction in the Post-occupation Iraqi Short Story in English Translation

English translations of Arabic literary works have interacted with -and possibly influenced- the Western context of science fiction literature. This thesis investigates how the English translations of post-occupation Iraqi short stories possibly contributed to the evolution of the Western science fiction genre. The study seeks to explain the relationship between post-2003 Iraqi literary works -that are a diverse range of corpus- as well as the possible influence of their translations and their counterparts in Anglophone literary systems. The research particularly focuses on Iraq +100 and The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq by Hassan Blasim. Blasim’s edited anthology, Iraq +100, is a prominent element in this study as it is analyzed to illustrate the interrelation between Arabic science fiction and Western traditions of this genre of fiction. As the roles of this edited anthology and short story collection are addressed and discussed in terms of the interaction between Anglophone and Arab literary systems, the study discusses the science fiction theories of Thomas Lombardo (2006) and Darko Suvin (2010). The primary objective of this study is to analyze the two selected books as they are introduced to the Western world and scrutinize how these books can be considered as a response to the evolution of the science fiction genre. Moreover, the translated works of post-occupation Iraqi short stories deal with the political and social impacts of the situation in Iraq after 2003. This thesis follows up by proposing that the anthologized English translations of these Arabic post-occupation Iraqi texts have contributed to the making of a dialogue between Arab and Western cultural and literary canons as well as traditions. The study also analyzes the short stories of the Iraqi writers, as illustrative of a specific expression of post-2003 Iraqi fiction that depicts the terror of violence in Iraq by delivering scenes of excessive violence in their texts. All in all, this study appears as an interdisciplinary work as it engages with translation studies, literary studies, history, and in a way, political science.

Choris Andros: St. Paul on Worlds Without Men

ABSTRACT The genre of fiction portraying worlds without men is over a century old – and growing. It reaches back to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1910 Herland, through scores of utopias from second wave feminist writers like Joanna Russ and Suzy McKee Charnas to contemporary examples from Lauren Beukes and Sandra Newman. This article asks: if it were in fact possible to create a world without men, for what reasons should we pursue or forgo such a world? Those who have endured patriarchy’s cruelty have good reasons to want to institute such a world. However, I present a biblical warrant for rejecting that utopian vision derived from 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul writes that there is “no woman without man” (χωρὶς ἀνδρὸς, choris andros), and “no man without woman.” At the crux of a text that emphasizes the interdependence of God’s creatures, Paul reminds us that interdependence obtains across lines of sexual difference.

Lidio Cipriani, Attilio Gatti, and the shooting of Siliva Zulu (1927)

This essay examines the 1927 documentary film Siliva Zulu, directed by Attilio Gatti with the support of anthropologist Lidio Cipriani, filmed in South Africa. While the existing academic research primarily focuses on the blurred boundaries between fiction and documentary genres within the film, this study introduces new sources concerning the film’s production. Through an analysis of archival documents, personal correspondence, and contemporary reviews, the essay reveals new aspects of Siliva Zulu. Furthermore, it traces the dissemination and reception of these materials from their inception to the present day, and how Siliva Zulu has been reinterpreted over time. This investigation not only enriches the understanding of early ethnographic filmmaking but also highlights the enduring impact of Siliva Zulu on cinematic, anthropological, and colonial discourses.

The Poetics of Journey to the West (2021): Disclosing a Way to Dwell in the World

Abstract Science fiction films and poetry are often assumed to be unrelated or even mutually opposed. Among Chinese science fiction films in recent years, Journey to the West is a uniquely poetic example. It offers a secular challenge to science fiction while simultaneously performing a dual construction of science fiction textually and thematically through poetic expressions – thereby expanding the genre boundaries and localized creation possibilities of science fiction films. This paper uses life-world philosophy to examine the film’s existential theme and analyzes the film’s science fiction poetic expressions through the theoretical perspectives of film poem, poetic thinking, poetry-film, and Chinese poetics, arguing that they illustrate and compensate for the limited meaning of the science fiction genre and scientific rationality itself, while exemplifying the ability of science fiction films to serve as a way of disclosing being-in-the-world.

Disrupting Dichotomies, Dismantling Hegemonies: Studying Caste Reality in Fiction Through Omprakash Valmiki’s Amma and Other Stories

In the Hindi belt, Dalit literature has taken full shape in the post-Ambedkarite and post-Mandal Commission moments, making this literature layered with the understanding of caste, caste politics and its subtleties, with the central question revolving around the issue of realism. The genre of Dalit fiction transcends the societal and literary boundaries that are guided by hegemonic forces and lifts the cloak of invisibility from the ‘other’. It has the potential to disrupt the dichotomy between the centre and the periphery. By undertaking a critical study of Omprakash Valmiki’s anthology Amma and Other Stories, published in 2008, this article is an attempt to locate the creative and liberating power of Dalit fiction that is seamlessly interwoven with reality. Primarily placed in the rural and urban areas of the state of Uttar Pradesh, Valmiki’s writing situates the Dalit reality directly in front of the readers, all the while challenging the representation and prominent discourse of the Hindi literary tradition. It is in the context of realism that this article focuses on the new kind of realism brought in by Dalit fiction and the revolutionary inversion undertaken by it, which subverts and dismantles the hegemonic traditions of society and literature.

HƯỚNG TIẾP CẬN TIỂU THUYẾT HAI VẠN DẶM DƯỚI BIỂN CỦA JULES VERNE QUA CÁC ĐOẠN TRÍCH TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA NGỮ VĂN 7 CHƯƠNG TRÌNH GIÁO DỤC PHỔ THÔNG 2018

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a great book by Jules Verne and a classic of the science fiction genre. In Vietnam, this novel was first included in the 2018 General Education Program as a primary reading material in the science fiction lesson of the Literature 7 textbooks. This article aims to elucidate the content value, artistic characteristics, and educational significance of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. It highlights the appeal and role of the work in developing qualities and competencies for secondary school students from scientific, cultural, historical, social, and psychological perspectives. Consequently, the article proposes approaches to effectively exploit and enhance the quality of teaching and learning this novel as well as the science fiction genre - a completely new genre in today's schools.

XVIAmerican Literature: The Twentieth Century

Abstract This chapter has nine sections: 1. Poetry; 2. Fiction 1900–1945; 3. Fiction since 1945; 4. Genre Fiction; 5. Drama; 6. Comics; 7. African American Writing; 8. Native Writing; 9. Latino/a, Asian American, and General Ethnic Writing. Section 1 is by James Gifford; section 2 will resume next year; section 3 will resume next year; section 4 is by James Gifford; section 5 will resume next year; section 6(a) is by Anna Peppard; section 6(b) is by Orion Ussner Kidder; section 7 is by Adam Rudder; section 8 will resume next year; section 9 is by Antonio Velásquez. Very few titles were received for 2022 last year. This year includes more late arrivals than is typical.

TRANSLATION FEATURES OF ENGLISH SCIENCE FICTION OF THE 20th CENTURY

This article explores the translation features of English science fiction literature from the 20th century. The genre of science fiction has gained immense popularity and significance over the years, with numerous works being translated into different languages to reach a global audience. The translation of science fiction presents unique challenges due to the complex scientific concepts, futuristic technologies, and imaginative worlds depicted in the original texts. This study examines the strategies and techniques used by translators to convey the essence and nuances of English science fiction works while maintaining the integrity of the original text. By analyzing specific examples and case studies, this article sheds light on the creative approaches employed by translators to bridge the cultural and linguistic gaps in science fiction literature, ultimately enhancing cross-cultural communication.

The Sea and Underwater Transport in Imraan Coovadia’s The Institute for Taxi Poetry

ABSTRACT This article discusses the link between public transport and literary practices by analyzing Imraan Coovadia’s 2012 novel, The Institute for Taxi Poetry. In this novel, Coovadia comments on South Africa’s palimpsestic history from the precolonial to the postcolonial. One way in which Coovadia does this is through the motif of the taxi. The taxi refers to a mini-bus taxi which in South Africa is a form of public transport primarily used by people from working-class backgrounds. Another way concerns the proposal of a fictional genre that plays a prominent role in this novel: taxi poetry. The article explores the ways in which the novel uses the taxi and submarine vessels to open up the geography of the sea as a transport surface whose impact on the histories of the dispossessed is visible from both below and above the waterline. Through engagement with the humanities turn in mobility studies and with scholarship in the oceanic humanities from the Global South, the article argues that the national and terrestrial readings of public transport in African literature(s) undervalue the sea, a prominent transport arena in Coovadia’s novel, as both a space of transit as well as a public space with shared transnational histories. The article engages the novel’s imagined literary sub-genre to evaluate how the text’s subterranean extensions of the South African taxi industry, and public transport generally, unearth the layered narrative of South Africa as nation.

“Racism is alive and well”: (Re)visiting the University of Florida’s Black Student Union’s history through composite counterstorytelling

This study centers on the origins of the Black Student Union (BSU) during the late 1960s and early 1970s at the University of Florida (UF) presented as a speculative fiction composite counterstory. The story presented in this manuscript serves as a cautionary tale of what the future of higher education will be, if white supremacy persists, even when white people will no longer represent a numerical majority. Though the findings utilized in this piece are decades old, we offer the current climate of public institutions and DEI initiatives to emphasize the importance of counterstories that underscore the resistance and activism that challenges oppressive systems and birthed such organizations as Black Student Unions, which are now increasingly under threat of elimination. Utilizing BlackCrit, we look backward to explore the permanence of anti-Black racism in our future. We invoke the genre of speculative fiction to give form to our findings - a fictional short story that posits a possible future world that runs counter to expectations for a post-racial future on college campuses and in the United States more broadly. Through a deeper understanding of how Black students drew upon their social networks during the Long Black Student Movement era, we aim to spark dialogue about the future of Black student advocacy at predominantly white American colleges and universities.