学术报告

早期西方科幻中的科学和近期西方科幻中的科学

The Science in Early Western Science Fiction & A Science of Recent Western Science Fiction

-A Science of Science Fiction: A new method of literary study

报告人

 nicholes ryan

主持人/翻译

吴岩

时间

2012年12月6日晚6点-9点

地点

北师大教四楼103室

内容

In Early Modern Europe Western science fiction as we know it was born from science, not literature. Now we have the technology to study science fiction with science. This talk tells a story about why science makes science fiction, and uses science to do so.

Historically the relation of Western Science Fiction to science and its practice has been intimate. Part 1 of the paper discusses examples from Early Modern literature such as Johannes Kepler's "De Somnium" that demonstrate that Early Modern science fiction prioritized (i) clarifying and framing scientific hypotheses (ii) in ways that avoided censorship and persecution by religious authorities, and did not prioritize producing quality literary works. Can historical developments in Early Modern Science Fiction be used to frame our own hypotheses about the genre of science fiction as it is represented in the present day? Part 2 of the paper switches gears in an effort to frame hypotheses framed through historical study of Western Science Fiction. To that end I present data from my lab's quantitative literary analysis of the science fiction genre against which we tested hypotheses about the linguistic differences between science fiction, fantasy and mystery.