Present(s) of science fiction: evolution and diversification of the genre in contemporary times

The year 2020 and the first months of 2021 were marked by a rich news in science fiction. The « Red Team », a team charged by the French army with developing possible scenarios of the future, imagining technical progress and its consequences, but also anticipating possible conflicts, has published its first work. The appearance and spread of Covid-19 brings back into our daily lives a recurring theme of the genre, that of the global pandemic, while, on February 18, 2021, onboard cameras broadcasting the landing on Mars of the Perseverance robot revive the dream of interstellar colonization. On the literary level, we are witnessing the coronation of a master of the genre, Philip K. Dick, whose entire collection of short stories has been published in the prestigious « Quarto » collection by Gallimard, alongside the greatest classics. In the film industry, the last quarter of 2020 was marked by the announcement of the release of a new adaptation of Dune, a huge classic of science fiction written by Frank Herbert, almost forty years after that of Lynch. On this occasion, Robert Laffont is reissuing the novel in a new translation, in which Renaud Guillemin, a researcher in molecular physics at the CNRS, participated.

If these events engage different actors and domains, their concomitance seems to us however significant, in that it invites to question not only the value of science fiction in the literary and artistic traditions, but also its role within the society. By focusing on recent and contemporary productions, this study day aims to analyze the evolution of this genre from a transdisciplinary, translinguistic and transmedia comparative perspective, in order to highlight its richness and potentiality that is too often devalued. It will focus on three main areas:

– the question of reception: we will question the place that science fiction occupies in university studies, in particular in the field of the humanities. Two points seem fundamental to us. In the first place, there is an inverse relationship between the undeniable enthusiasm it arouses among readers/viewers and the still significant lack of interest in it, due to a lack of legitimacy, within the University. Indeed, as a popular genre, science fiction is traditionally perceived as pure entertainment, an « easy » literature or a cinema only dedicated to special effects lovers, thus underlining the above all spectacular character of the genre, which would not be very favourable to constitute a subject of study. However, it seems more necessary than ever in our societies which can no longer adhere without reserve to the optimism of the philosophy of progress. Secondly, it is interesting to note that more and more researchers who do not belong to the fields of artistic studies (hard sciences, law, philosophy, medicine, history, geography) use science fiction as a window to open their discipline to the world. Going beyond the strict confines of their specialty, they find in science fiction a way to convey their interests to a wider audience that embraces this new approach, modernizing disciplines that were not easily accessible outside of the academic setting. A characteristic example of this exchange is manifested within the discipline of astrophysics where several scientists (Jean-Pierre Luminet, Roland Lehoucq, Trinh Xuan Thuan) use science fiction to draw examples, explain or illustrate new theories developed around physical concepts such as the black hole, exoplanets, the intergalactic black or the existence of extraterrestrial life. On the other hand, we perceive that science fiction brought to the screen tends to get closer to reality, in particular in the films staging space missions, thus playing a role in the creation of a new social perception facing the innovations of science and technology. We think, for example, of High life (2019), Interstellar (2014), The martian (2015) or Gravity (2013).

– the diversification of the genre which, contrary to the accusation of easy literature, finds a new breath and manages to diversify itself: in the era of digital technology and transhumanism, the possibilities of science and their consequences offer new perspectives which artists seize to think the social problems which run through contemporary societies, allowing the genre to renew itself. This diversification is reflected in particular in the appearance, in works of anticipation sometimes situated on the border of the science fiction genre, of new approaches questioning the relations of power and domination under the prism of gender or racial discrimination. One thinks in particular of The Handmaid’s TaleIt is also the work of Ursula Le Guin, Ann Leckie, Joëlle Wintrebert or Sylvie Lainé, or, in a completely different register, to Afrofuturism, a current that manifests itself both in cinema and visual arts (John Sayles, Ryan Coogler), in music (Sun Ra) or visual arts (Jean-Michel Basquiat) and in literature (Samuel R. Delany, Nnedi Okorafor, Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, Léonora Miano or Abdourahman A. Waberi). This diversification of the genre does not only take place from the point of view of the approached themes but also of the writing practices, since some authors, fully conscious of the potentialities of the genre, without being themselves specialists, make incursions there (Ishiguro, Oates, Eggers).

– the processes of adaptation and transfictions (according to the terminology proposed by Richard Saint-Gelais): the success of science fiction is made manifest by the important creative vitality that it arouses in terms of rewritings and transpositions, which make the universes and the characters travel. It seems indeed impossible to speak about science fiction without summoning the notion of intermediality, insofar as this genre is represented on a multitude of supports (film, comic strip, manga, video games…). This phenomenon largely explains the popularity of the genre and allows us to understand the stakes of contemporary cultural production, which tends more and more to decompartmentalize the arts and, consequently, to question still persistent hierarchies. Moreover, because it is an eminently visual genre, it allows us to think about the creation of a common imagery, of new transnational, transgenerational topoi that therefore transcend traditional cultural barriers(Annihilation (2018), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Arrival (2016), Minority Report (2002), Total Recall (1990)). Genre of the present projected in the future and represented according to the modalities of the possible, science fiction becomes, thanks to the adaptation, a product of the imitation but also, simultaneously, of a new identification. Thus emerges the notion of « historicity » of gender, which directly raises the question of the different circumstances (sociological, scientific, psychological, political, historical) that lead to the creation of its new identity. In this perspective, science fiction goes as far as to re-interrogate the treatment of History itself.

We will be particularly sensitive to proposals offering a comparative approach, notably intermediary, as well as to works based on critical approaches that allow to cross the different discourses on science fiction (historical, psychoanalytical, gender studies or postcolonial studies…).

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This study day, which aims to promote the meeting and the emergence of links between young researchers from all disciplines whose work deals with science fiction, will take place in person in Aix-en-Provence (Aix-Marseille University), Friday, May 19, 2022(nb. If sanitary conditions do not allow it, it will be postponed to a later date).

Paper proposals (1 page max., with a brief bio-bibliographic note) should be sent to presents.sciencefiction@gmail.com, before December 20, 2021.

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Indicative bibliography :

Adler, Charles L. Wizards, Aliens, and Starships: Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N. J, 2014.

Chion, Michel. Science Fiction Films. Cahiers du cinéma, Paris, 2008.

Colson, Raphaël, Ruaud, André-François, Science-Fiction, Une Littérature Du Réel. Klincksieck, Paris, 2006.

Curir, Anna, de Felice, Fernando, From science fiction to science. The role of the imagination in the development of scienceParis, l’Harmattan, 2020.

Defferrard, Fabrice, Le Droit Saisi Par La Science-Fiction. Editions Mare & Martin, Paris, 2016.

Dufour, Éric, Le Cinéma De Science-Fiction : Histoire Et Philosophie. A. Colin, Paris, 2011.

Hottois, Gilbert (ed.), Philosophie et science-fiction, Pris, Vrin, 2000.

Jung, Carl G., Cahen, Roland, A Modern Myth: « Signs Of Heaven ». Gallimard, Paris, 1974.

Landragin, Frédéric, How to Talk to an Alien? : Language And Linguistics In Science Fiction. Le Bélial, Saint Mammès, 2018.

Langlet, Irène, La Science-fiction, lecture et poétique d’un genre littéraire, Paris, Armand Colin, 2006.

Langlet, Irène, Le Temps Rapaille, science-fiction et présentisme, Limoges, PU de Limoges, 2021.

Lehoucq, Roland, Lehman, Serge, SF : la science mène l’enquête. le Pommier, Paris, 2011.

Michaud, Thomas, Prospective et science-fiction, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2010.

Michaud, Thomas, La Stratégie comme discours, la science-fiction dans les centers de recherche et développement, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2010.

Saint-Gelais, Richard, The Empire of the pseudo. Modernities of science fiction, Québec, Éditions Nota Bene, 1999.

Saint-Gelais, Richard, Fictions transfuges. La transfictionnalité et ses enjeux, Paris, Éditions du Seuil, 2011.