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This course aims to examine how the questions of “man” and “society” are revisited, rethought and reframed in science fiction. We will study both the classics of British science fiction—such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World—as well as the short stories by American authors of the “Golden Age of Science Fiction,” like Isaac Asimov. In addition, we will study the works of Chinese science fiction, like Biheguan Zhuren’s The New Era (Late-Qing China), Chang Shi-kuo’s Nebula Suite (Taiwan), and He Xi’s Darwin Trap (mainland China). Class discussion concerns a wide range of topics, including but not limited to theology, ethics, the animal-human boundary, the mind-body relation, artificial intelligence, Utopia/Dystopia, modernization, colonialism, and Western-Chinese comparative culture. We will analyze the subtle meaning and philosophical significance of the above-mentioned texts of Western and Chinese science fiction in light of the traditions of Western and Chinese literatures, the historical developments of modern science and technology in Western and Eastern worlds, and the sociohistorical backgrounds of modern Europe, American and China.
Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss student of natural science who creates an artificial man from relics of the dead by with horrible consequences. Though it initially seeks affection, the monster inspires loathing in everyone who meets it. Lonely and miserable, the monster turns upon its creator, who eventually loses his life. Frankenstein confronts some of the most feared innovations of evolutionism: topics such as degeneracy, hereditary disease, and mankind’s status as a species of animal. It shows humanity its choice- to live co-operatively or to die of selfishness. This edition uses the 1818 text.
Published in 1896, a time when vivisection was hotly debated and as Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was gaining in popularity, this science fiction on a mad scientist’s experiments involving vivisection to address such issues as evolution and ethics. Dr. Moreau, a scientist expelled from his homeland for his cruel vivisection experiments, finds a deserted island that gives him the freedom to continue torturous transplantations and create hideous creatures with manlike intelligence. But as the brutally enforced order on Moreau’s island dissolves, the true consequences of his experiments emerge, and his creations revert to beasts more shocking than nature could devise.
This novel was published by the English writer Aldous Huxley in 1931. It depicts a human society in the 26th century, which is rich in materials and products, but loses family, love, belief, and freedom. Citizens are classified into five predetermined classes, and their appearance and intelligence are manipulated in the womb by artificial technology based on the demands of the country. The country controls their mind, and excel those who tend to think independently. With this story, Huxley tends to challenge the widespread belief in technology as a futuristic remedy for problems caused by disease and war by pushing it to extremes.
故事设定时的新中国已是世界上首屈一指之大国：政治上“久已改用立宪政体”，中央地方各有议院议会，而“从前被各国恃强租借去的地方，早已一概收回”；人口一千兆，军队六百万。中国的强盛引起了白种各国的猜疑和联手抵制，恰逢此时欧洲匈耶律国境内向奴后裔黄种人与欧裔白种人之间发生纠纷，酿成内乱，黄种匈王求助于中国大皇帝，中国随即出兵远征欧洲，挑战白种列强，最后迫使白种诸国签订城下之盟。战事结束，中国以胜利者姿态进入“新纪元”。
本书收录了何夕创作的十三篇科幻小说，分别是《六道众生》《异域》《平行》《漏洞里的枪声》《故乡的云》《本原》《缺陷》《盘古》《一夜疯狂》《光恋》《蛇发族》《十亿年后的来客》《达尔文陷阱》，其中《六道众生》《异域》《平行》《光恋》《十亿年后的来客》等为中国科幻创作最高奖——银河奖的获奖作品。何夕的作品涉及宇宙探险、时间旅行、平行时空等多种主题，尤其专注于对宏观科学未来及人性善恶的探讨。
This book traces the development of the genre of science fiction from Ancient Greece and the European Reformation through to the end of the 20th century. This second edition includes an all-new final chapter discussing 21st-century science fiction. The author’s groundbreaking thesis that science fiction is born out of the 17th-century Reformation is here bolstered with a wide range of new supporting material and many hundreds of 17th- and 18th-century science fiction texts, some of which have never been discussed before. The account of 19th-century science fiction has been expanded, and the various chapters tracing the twentieth-century bring in more writing by women, and science fiction in other media.
This book provides an introduction to the genre science fiction and to its study. After an introduction to the nature of science fiction, historical chapters discuss major authors and editors, tracing science fiction from Thomas More to more recent years, and market forces which have shaped the literary structures of the field. The second section introduces four important critical approaches to science fiction drawing their theoretical inspiration from Marxism, postmodernism, feminism and queer theory. The final and largest section of the book looks at various themes and sub-genres of science fiction.
This book collects more than 30 essential works of science fiction criticism. Section One explores key attempts to delimit the boundaries of science fiction as a field. Section Two examines key interventions in the study of science fiction as a narrative form. Section Three opens a consideration of science fiction’s sociopolitical implications. Section Four focuses closely on the representation of nonhuman others (aliens, robots, cyborgs, etc.), considering the formal and ideological implications of these depictions. Section Five gathers key statements about science fiction’s links with imperialist and neo-imperialist discourses and the resulting constraints and enablements the genre offers in its engagement with issues of race and ethnicity.
