|
License Agreement on scientific materials use.
|
|
|
Mythologization of the past in postcolonial science fiction
|
Yuliya Pavlovna Khoroshevskaya
Rostov State Transport University
|
|
Submitted:
November 25, 2025
|
|
Abstract.
In postcolonial discourse, the past is often perceived not only as a historical milestone, but also as a layer of collective memory that can be rethought and “retold”. From this point of view, myth becomes a necessary link, a mediator, connecting the traumatic colonial past and a possible future, since it is myth that allows us to break the linearity of historiography, expand time and space, bringing to the forefront the traditions of storytelling, sacred practices and images. Science fiction, thanks to its metaphorical nature and ability to model worlds of alternative futures, becomes a space where the natural coexistence of new forms of historical and cultural consciousness is possible. The aim of this study is to identify the forms and functions of mythologization of the past in postcolonial science fiction and to determine how the appeal to myth contributes to the reconstruction of cultural memory and the formation of a new postcolonial identity, using the example of the works of Nalo Hopkinson, Vandana Singh, and Henrietta Rose-Innes. The scientific novelty of this work lies in the fact that mythologization in postcolonial fiction is considered not only as an artistic device, but also as an epistemological mechanism through which authors create new models of understanding the past, ways of forming identity and expanding options for cultural dialogue in the future. The study found that postcolonial science fiction provides authors with the opportunity to rethink the past through categories of the future, thanks to a combination of rational and mythological ways of knowing. It is within the framework of the science fiction narrative that the combination of scientific and mythological discourses becomes possible, which allows for a rethinking of cultural notions of time, space, and human identity.
|
Key words and phrases:
постколониальная научная фантастика
постколониальный дискурс
Нало Хопкинсон
Вандана Сингх
Генриетта Роуз-Иннес
postcolonial science fiction
postcolonial discourse
Nalo Hopkinson
Vandana Singh
Henrietta Rose-Innes
|
|
Open
the whole article in PDF format. Free PDF-files viewer can be downloaded here.
|
|
References:
- Ассман Я. Культурная память: письмо, память о прошлом и политическая идентичность в высоких культурах древности. М.: Языки славянской культуры, 2004.
- Леви-Стросс К. Структурная антропология. М.: Просвещение, 1983.
- Мелетинский Е. М. Поэтика мифа. М.: Академический проект; Мир, 2012.
- Спивак Г. Ч. Могут ли угнетенные говорить? М.: V-A-C Press, 2022.
- Толкачев С. П. Джокер из колоды, или Магическая реальность карибской англоязычной литературы // Мир науки, культуры, образования. 2024. № 4 (107).
- Хальбвакс М. Коллективная и историческая память // Неприкосновенный запас. 2005. № 2-3 (40-41).
- Элиаде М. Миф о вечном возращении. Архетипы и повторение // Элиаде М. Избранные сочинения. М.: Ладомир, 2000.
- Bhabha H. The Location of Culture. L.: Routledge, 1994.
- Campbell J. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.
- Halloran V. N. Re-mapping the Caribbean Gothic in Nalo Hopkinson’s Sister Mine and Shani Mootoo’s He Drown She in the Sea. // Chronotropics. Caribbean Women Writing Spacetime. N. Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
- Said E. Culture and Imperialism. L.: Vintage, 1994.
- Soja E. W. Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.
- Suvin D. Metamorphoses of Science Fiction. New Haven – L.: Yale University Press, 1979.
|
|
