Reading space-time: A chronotopic analysis of the science fiction genre

Abstract

Bakhtin postulates that what we perceive as genres are in fact descriptions of various “chronotopes,” or literary and artistic representations of space and time. Bakhtin borrows Einstein’s concept of space-time and applies it to literature, suggesting that time and space are actually inseparable in texts, and that this unitary whole constitutes the “chronotope.” This thesis takes Bakhtin’s theory as a starting point for an exploration of how space and time are represented in the science fiction genre, and further postulates that science fiction has a particular affinity for this mode of reading, because of its unique approach to world-building. If genres actually represent different kinds of spatio-temporal narrative worlds, then science fiction, like all other genres, ought to have its own distinctive kind of time and space, the nature of which I also set out to identify. Understanding how science fiction represents space and time can provide new insights about the functioning of particular texts, as well as a more nuanced understanding of the construction of the genre itself. In addition, the chronotopic mode enables alternative readings that prioritise the investigation of textual space and time over traditional critical mainstays such as plot, characterisation and theme. The thesis investigates novels by Philip K. Dick, J.G. Ballard, Frank Herbert, Arthur C. Clarke, Stanislaw Lem, and Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, as well as the science fiction comics of Alejandro Jodorowsky, the television show Star Trek, and the work of several filmmakers, including Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky, George Lucas and David Cronenberg. This multimedia approach is motivated by the understanding that genre is not restricted to any particular medium. Rather, the chronotope is a marker for genre identity that crosses such boundaries, although it does undergo transformations and alterations in the process of adaptation. These exploratory forays are examples of how a chronotopic approach to text can result in a subtler understanding of the mechanisms of genre. These investigations also aim to be new and innovative approaches to genre texts in and of themselves. Finally, these examples contribute towards a definition of the broad generic chronotope of science fiction, a widely understood and acknowledged category that has in the past proved resistant to critical taxonomies.