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    Utopia within Dystopia: Stand on Zanzibar as Speculative Postcolonial Literature

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    Verge_9_Livingstone.pdf (131.7Kb)
    Links to Files
    http://blogs.goucher.edu/verge/9-2/
    Permanent Link
    http://hdl.handle.net/11603/2641
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    • Goucher College - Verge: the goucher journal of undergraduate writing
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    Author/Creator
    Livingston, Megan
    Date
    2012
    Type of Work
    11 p.
    Text
    science fiction
    Department
    English
    Program
    Bachelor's Degree
    Rights
    Collection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.
    Subjects
    Research -- Periodicals.
    Humanities -- Research -- Periodicals.
    Social sciences -- Research -- Periodicals.
    Abstract
    The science fiction genre is a forgotten stepchild in the literary family; great writers can be marginalized by their choice to delve into the fantastic, while some excellent speculative novels face an uphill battle to remain within the genre because they are so good that critical praise becomes evidence of transcendence. When one of my classmates shared a video clip of an interview with John Brunner discussing his work, one thing stood out for me against the backdrop of his success and obvious enjoyment of that success: he seemed to have a need to defend the quality of the work and its place within the genre, as if he feared being remembered only as a good science fiction writer and not as a great writer like those who influenced him. At the start of my search for relevant scholarship for this paper, I felt challenged to locate a conceptual tether that would lead me deep enough into John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar to discover something new within it, or perhaps a new way to understand it. Brunner published the novel in 1968, when many nations in the "global south" were moving towards or had already sprung free from their colonial shackles. I found that using a postcolonial lens to delve deeper into the choices and movements of Brunner's characters created more complex and nuanced revelations in my analysis, and I found myself agreeing with Brunner: the work is more than "just" science fiction, and he was more than "just" a science fiction writer. The tools a writer uses to tell his story should ideally be the best tools for the job - and the exercise of collecting, examining and appropriating each tool within its rightful box is the job of the critically-thinking and open-minded reader.


    Goucher College
    1021 Dulaney Valley Road
    Baltimore, MD 21204

    www.goucher.edu

    Contact Information:
    kristen.welzenbach@goucher.edu
    library.goucher.edu/md-soar


    If you wish to submit a copyright complaint or withdrawal request, please email mdsoar-help@umd.edu.

     

     

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    Goucher College
    1021 Dulaney Valley Road
    Baltimore, MD 21204

    www.goucher.edu

    Contact Information:
    kristen.welzenbach@goucher.edu
    library.goucher.edu/md-soar


    If you wish to submit a copyright complaint or withdrawal request, please email mdsoar-help@umd.edu.