Finally, the last postmodern concept regards that of
Survin and his Cognitive Estrangement theory (1979). Darko Suvin is a leading
theorist in science fiction and his ground-breaking notion concerning science
fiction in comparison to utopian fiction, which he describes as a “developed
oxymoron, a realistic irreality” (Survin in Keyes, 2006). However, in 1979
Survin defines science fiction as,
“A literary
genre or verbal construct whose necessary are the presence and interaction of
estrangement and cognition and whose main device is an imaginative framework
alternative to the author’s empirical environment” (Survin, 1979, p.190).
The first thing to note in Survin’s theory surrounds the
genre itself “the importance of science fiction in our time is on the increase
... there are strong indications that its popularity in the leading industrial
nations has risen sharply” (Survin, 1979, p.187) indicating a generated
interest to new social groups and encouraging a new way at thinking about the
way human societies work with a new insight who “appreciative of [to] a new
sets of values” (Survin, 1979, p.188) which suggests that through examining
these new worlds we are able to analyse our own with a new perspective. It is a
matter of defamiliarization; another concept Adorno supports “estrangement
shows itself precisely in the elimination of distance between people” (Adorno
in Berry, 2014) this is an idea that all three notions consider Adorno’s Culture Industry and its distance from
the truth, Baudrillard’s Simulacra and
Simulation is its distance from reality and here it resides in the distance
of people. All in all it is a structuralist approach to attempt to define such
a genre and distinguish it from other forms of fiction.
The theory is split into three parts, in n the first
section of his theory he marks the devices of cognitive estrangement and a term
he calls the ‘narrative novum’ which is the presence of the story; such things
involved are things “significantly different from what is the norm in
‘naturalistic’ or empiricist fiction” (Survin, 1979, p.188). Examples of these
scientific novum include time travel, invasion from outer space, radical
scientific breakthrough, mutations and hyper-intelligent AI’s, any concept
within scientific reason; it is these concepts that help us challenge what we
consider familiar using this as a platform to contemplate a new understanding,
through the creation of these external worlds. The second section centres on
how “Estrangement differentiates SF from the ‘realistic’ literary mainstream”
(Survin, 1979, p.190) and that this type of literature is not bound to the
author’s empirical world but explores many cognitive possibilities from myth,
folktale and fantasy. Survin argues that science fiction “does not use
imagination as a means of understanding the tendencies latent in reality” (Survin,
1979, p.190) this is an attempt to acknowledge a distinct practice of science
fiction relating to the period in time in which the literature was devised,
Seed agrees with Survin that “science fiction and utopias are closely
interrelated through their development ... according to the historical
urgencies of their period’s” (Seed, 2011, p.128). A following section of
Survin’s cognitive estrangement theory concentrates on the concept of science
fiction and its functions “As a fully
fledged literary genre, SF has its own repertory of functions, conventions, and
devices” (Survin, 1979, p.191) proves that this developing literary genre has
also growing prestige. The final section of Survin’s article discusses the
growing anticipation of the science fiction genre after its initial disregard
“into a reservation or ghetto which was protective and is now constrictive” (Survin,
1979, p.192) to a now established and updated genre with subgenres containing
artificial intelligence, disasters, time travel, aliens and such. Survin
proposes that this classification of
literature can create “deeper and more lasting sources of enjoyment, also
presupposes more complex and wider cognitions” (Survin. 1979, p.192) a notion
that Adorno proposes in his theory of culture industry (1944) where he suggests
that greater satisfaction would come from those proceedings that stimulated new
areas of cognition like what Survin recommends with science fiction, prompting
a new way of thinking.
Berry, M, D. (2014) Critical Theory and the Digital. London: Bloomsbury.
Keyes, F. (2006) The
Literature of Hope in the Middle Ages and Today: Connections in Medieval
Romance, Modern Fantasy, and Science Fiction. North Carolina and London:
McFarland & Company Inc.
Seed, D. (2011) Science
Fiction: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Survin, D. (1979) ‘Cognition
and Estrangement’, in Metamorphoses of Science Fiction. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
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