Ukrainian Science Fiction: Historical and Thematic Perspectives

ISBN-13: 9783034313230 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 388 str.

Walter Smyrniw

Opis

As the first of its kind, the present study of Ukrainian science fiction encompasses both the historical and thematic features of this genre. It contains a discussion of the representative and the most imaginative Ukrainian science fiction works published by writers residing in Ukraine and abroad.
The initial part of the study focuses on the historical legacy of Ukrainian science fiction, with a special emphasis on the authors of the formative period and the emigre authors who wrote after the Second World War, but were totally ignored during the Soviet political hegemony. It is followed by an analysis of the impact of Soviet ideology on the science fiction that prevailed in Ukraine from the 1920s to the late 1950s.
With the relaxation of political controls over literature, publications of Ukrainian science fiction after the 1960s were so numerous that it was not feasible to obtain and to examine all these items. However, the novels and stories that were utilized in this study do provide a representative sample of the themes that comprise the main thrust of Ukrainian science fiction from the early 1960s to the end of the 20th century."

Spis treści

Contents: Harbingers of Ukrainian Science Fiction - The First Ukrainian Utopia - Krat's Religious Utopia - By the Power of the Sun - The Solar Machine - First Space Voyages - Technology and Ideology - Émigré Science Fiction - Space and Time Travels - Encounters with Aliens - Evolution of Robots - Androids and Biokibers - Cyborgs and Syhoms - From Manhood to Godhood - Science Fiction Mythology: The Star Corsair - Science Fiction Mythology: The Gospel of Jesus - Cosmic Laughter: Humour in Science Fiction.

O autorze

Walter Smyrniw is Professor Emeritus at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He published numerous articles on nineteenth and twentieth-century Russian and Ukrainian literature in North American and European Slavic journals. He is the author of Ukrainian Prose Manual and Turgenev's Early Works and co-editor of Studies in Honour of Louis Shein and Socialist Realism Revisited.