A Bio-Political Reading of 20Th Century Latin American and Anglo-Saxon Science Fiction Juan David Cruz University of South Carolina
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University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 2018 Through the Spaceship’s Window: A Bio-political Reading of 20th Century Latin American and Anglo-Saxon Science Fiction Juan David Cruz University of South Carolina Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons Recommended Citation Cruz, J. D.(2018). Through the Spaceship’s Window: A Bio-political Reading of 20th Century Latin American and Anglo-Saxon Science Fiction. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/4735 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Through the Spaceship’s Window: A Bio-political Reading of 20th Century Latin American and Anglo-Saxon Science Fiction by Juan David Cruz Bachelor of Arts Univeridad de los Andes, 2009 Master of Arts University of South Carolina, 2012 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2018 Accepted by: Jorge Camacho, Major Professor Héctor D. Fernández L’Hoeste, Committee Member Meili Steele, Committee Member Alexander J. Beecroft, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Juan David Cruz, 2018 All Rights Reserved. ii Dedication To my parents, Julio César Cruz and Claudia Patricia Duarte. And to Ruth, who has supported me at every step of this long process. I love you all. iii Acknowldegements I would like to thank my dissertation director, Dr. Jorge Camacho, for his support and guidance through the process of writing this dissertation. I would also like to thank Dr. Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste, whose detailed feedback and encouragement has allowed me to complete and considerably improve this text. I am also thankful to Dr. Raúl Diego Rivera Hernández, who assisted me in the first stages of this project, and introduced me to the works of Mexican author Eduardo Urzaiz. To Dr. Alexander J. Beecroft and Dr. Meili Steele, thank you very much for being willing to be part of my dissertation committee. It has been a true privilege to work with great scholars and educators like yourselves. I would also like to thank Lynne Voit. The first essay on science fiction I ever wrote was the final paper for her writing class at UofSC’s English Program for Internationals. Thank you for encouraging me to attend graduate school. I would also like to thank my friends in Columbia, South Carolina, for all their support, encouragement, and affection, in the long and emotionally challenging process of getting a Doctorate degree. Thank you, Julia Luján (and her mother, Zulma Zamudio de Luján, who sent me sveral important novels and comics from Argentina, that will enable me to further pursue my studies on Latin American science fiction), Cristián Monaco, David Beek, Marc Démont, Irina V. Meier, Andrés Arroyave, Hugo Pascual Bordón, Ben Rodríguez, Gloria Losada, Edgar Larrea, Whitney Waites, Alejandro García Lemos, Dr. Mercedes López, Dr. María Mabrey, Dr. Lucile Charlebois, Dr. Isis Sadek, Beatriz Rincón Kellogg, her husband Dr. Jim Kellog, their son Matt Kellog, Peter iv Nelson, Feng Zhuo, Paul Mcelhny, Ben García, and Saori Pastore. I would have not been able to go through graduate school without your friendship and support. I would also like to thank all my Colombian friends in the United States, many of whom are going (or have gone) through the process of getting a Doctoral degree in different fields. Thank you, Camilo Posada (who was my roommate for more than four years), Yohanna Mejía, Érika Rengifo, Melek Yildiz, William Ovalle, Luisa Sánchez, and Rodrigo Azuero. Your affection and friendship has given me the necesary strength to carry on, while being far away from my family and loved ones. I will like to thank Drip, my favorite coffee shop in South Carolina, for providing me with a peaceful place to write, and considerable amounts of caffeine, which allowed me to write this extensive project. Thank you, Shane, Crawford, Marcy, Jessica, Liz, Scott, Bratt, Stacy, Sean, and everyone else who works—and has worked—in this great establishment. I will also like to thank Kaye, in Starbuscks, who teaches me Japanese words in between coffee cups, and Alison Smetana, who used to work at Cool Beans, and introduced me to some great bands. It would be unfair not to mention here The Whig (North America’s greatest dive bar) and Speak Easy. We all need to relax once in a a while, so thank you for making this town a better place. To the literary and art community of Columbia, South Carolina, thank you. It has been a true privilege to participate in several art events, poetry readings, movie screenings, etc. I must thank great organizations like Palmetto Luna and the Nickelodeon Theater, as well as individual artists and art professionals such as Dr. Ed Madden, v Alejandro García Lemos, Iván Segura, Darien Cavanaugh, Amada Torruella, Loli Molina Muñoz, and Thomas Crouch. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Julio César Cruz and Claudia Patricia Duarte, for always being there for me. Thank you, Felipe and Juliana, for making this world a better place. Thank you, Victoria and Antonia, for bringing joy and tenderness into my life. Thank you, Cipriano Cruz, Cecilia Suárez, Claudio Duarte, and Lola Cediel, for keeping me in your minds and prayers (even though I’m not one for praying). Thank you, Ruth Guillén, for your love, constant support, and incredible patience. I love you. vi Abstract This dissertation consists of a bio-political reading of a wide variety of Latin American, American, and British works of science fiction, written from 1919 to 1989. In this project I have analyzed how works of science fiction in different historical and geographical contexts deal with issues such as eugenics, racism, fear of the alien, the threat of nuclear global conflict, etc. I have made a conscious effort to demonstrate that Latin America has been part of global phenomena such as the Cold War, and has produced a wide and rich corpus of science fiction works that deal with these global issues, as well as with local political or social circumstances particular to the nations where these works were written and read. My project demonstrates that Latin America is no stranger to Modernity, and has articulated its own understanding of what Modernity is; this can be seen in several of the works of that I have analyzed. In this project I have also confronted prejudices and misconceptions about science fiction: I argue that science fiction is not an escapist genre, unworthy of critical attention; far from it, this genre is ideal for engaging in conversations about the way in which technology shapes our world, our personal relationships, and our understanding of ourselves and others. In a similar way, I confront prejudices against the graphic novel and the comic book, demonstrating that the medium of graphic narrative is well-suited for dealing with issues of great importance, in a rich and complex way. Finally, this project vii contributes to the study of Latin American science fiction, which (especially in the context of Colombian literary criticism) has been neglected in academia for way too long. viii Preface When most people think of science fiction they think of spaceships, aliens, ray guns, and other images that we have inherited, mostly, from Western pulp magazines of the 20th century. And yes, this is, in fact, all part of science fiction. But science fiction is also a literary genre that deals with subjects of great importance four our times, namely, the way in which technology has shaped, is shaping, and could shape our understanding of ourselves, of our world and reality. Science fiction is also the literary genre that allows us to express how technology has changed the way in which we relate to one another, and how it could continue to do so, for better and for worse, in the future. Finally, science fiction has absorbed utopia, and created and shaped its natural opposite: dystopia. Science fictional dystopias and utopias allow authors to explore and hypothesize about political and cultural changes in possible futures, articulating the fears and anxieties of their own eras, while warning us of the evils, the pain and suffering, that we as a species could create and bring upon us. However, in the form of technological utopias, science fiction also articulates ideal models of the future to strive for. Several literary scholars and assiduous readers, including some of my Latin American colleagues, seemed puzzled when learning that I was writing a doctoral dissertation on Latin American science fiction. Many did not know that there was such a ix thing as Latin American science fiction.1 I have come to the realization that it is is not unusual for fiction readers outside Latin America to read works of Latin American science fiction as magical realism, a literary label that has been arbitrarily used to describe works of Latin American literature that could not be contained under the label of realism. In this way, the fiction of authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, and many others, is often mis-labelled as magical realism. There are four different literary genres that are usually mis-labelled as magical realism: the first one is fantastic literature (which has great exponents in the region, such as Leopoldo Lugones, Horacio Quiroga, Borges, Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, etc.); the second one is surrealism (which, in Latin America, took the form of the “marvelous real,” a term coined by Cuban author Alejo Carpentier);2 the third one is fantasy literature (which has had prominent exponents like Angélica Gorodischer); and finally, science fiction.