Science Fiction's Ethical Modes: Totality and Infinity in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and Yevgeny Zamyatin's Мы (We)

kendal_chapter_AAM.pdf

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

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

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.