Science Fiction's Ethical Modes: Totality and Infinity in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and Yevgeny Zamyatin's Мы (We)
Dublin Core
Title
Science Fiction's Ethical Modes: Totality and Infinity in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and Yevgeny Zamyatin's Мы (We)
Subject
science fiction; comparative literature; ethics; Emmanuel Levinas; Isaac Asimov; Yevgeny Zamyatin; pulp magazines; utopian studies; dystopia
Description
This chapter asks whether science fiction (SF) has a predisposition to a particular ethical orientation. Rather than seek a single answer to this question of SF’s ethics, Kendal examines two classic SF texts and the traditions they represent: Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy (1951–1953), one of the most iconic series of SF’s American “golden age,” and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s Мы (We) (1921), a highly influential dystopian novel from an Eastern European SF tradition. Drawing on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, Kendal argues that the genre SF that developed in the American pulp magazines was dominated by themes and modes of literary representation best described as totalising, while SF not governed by these generic expectations has often engaged effectively in a more ethical representation of the other.
Creator
Zachary Kendal
Source
Ethical Futures and Global Science Fiction, ed. Zachary Kendal, Aisling Smith, Giulia Champion and Andrew Milner
FULL TEXT IN MINERVA ACCESS: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/282463
FULL TEXT IN MINERVA ACCESS: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/282463
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Date
28 January 2020
Rights
© 2020, Zachary Kendal, under exclusive licence to SpringerNature Switzerland AG. Accepted manuscript (postprint) embargoed until 29 January 2022.
Format
Print (pp. 3-27) ; electronic (PDF)
Type
Book chapter
Identifier
Collection
Citation
Zachary Kendal, “Science Fiction's Ethical Modes: Totality and Infinity in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and Yevgeny Zamyatin's Мы (We),” Zachary Kendal, accessed May 2, 2024, https://kendal.omeka.net/items/show/6.