"Lavinia" de Úrsula K. Le Guin, una novela virgiliana

Análisis de las dependencias y novedades que, respecto al argumento de la Eneida de Virgilio, ofrece la reciente novela Lavinia (2009), de la escritora norteamericana Úrsula K. Le Guin.

The water catchment : fast forward to the past

The Water Catchment: fast forward to the past comprises two parts: a creative piece and an exegesis. The methodology is Creative Practice as Research; a process of critical reflection, where I observe how researching the exegesis, in my case analysing how the social reality of an era in which an author writes affects their writing of the protagonist's journey, and how this in turn shapes how I write the hero's pathway in the creative piece. The genre in which the protagonist's journey is charted and represented is dystopian young adult fiction; hence my creative piece, The Water Catchment, is a novel manuscript for a dystopian young adult fantasy. It is a speculative novel set in a possible future and poses (and answers) the question: What might happen if water becomes the most powerful commodity on earth? There are two communities, called 'worlds' to create a barrier and difference where physical ones are not in evidence. A battle ensues over unfair conditions and access to water. In the end the protagonist, Caitlyn, takes over leadership heralding a new era of co-operation and water management between the two worlds. The exegesis examines how the hero's pathway, the journey towards knowledge and resolution, is best explored in young adult literature through dystopian narratives. I explore how the dystopian worlds of Ursula Le Guin's first and last books of The Earthsea Quartet are foundational, and lay this examination over an analysis of both the hero's pathway within and the social contexts outside of the novels. Dystopian narratives constitute a liberating space for the adolescent protagonist between the reliance on adults in childhood and the world of adults. In young adult literature such narratives provide fertile ground to explore those aspects informing an adolescent's future.

Speculative fictions for understanding global change environments: two thought experiments

The purpose of a thought experiment, as the term was used by quantum and relativity physicists in the early part of the twentieth century, was not prediction (as is the goal of classical experimental science), but more defensible representations of present ‘realities’. Speculative fictions, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to the Star Wars cinema saga, can be read as sociotechnical thought experiments that produce alternative representations of present circumstances and uncertainties, and anticipate and critique possible futures. In this essay I demonstrate how two examples of popular speculative fictions, Frank Herbert's Dune (1965) and Ursula Le Guin's The Telling (2000), function as thought experiments that problematise global transitions in their respective eras. I argue that critical readings of such stories can help us to anticipate, critique, and respond constructively to social and cultural changes and change environments within nation-states that constitute, and are constituted by, global change processes and their effects.

Democracy, global transitions, and education : using speculative fictions as thought experiments in anticipatory critical inquiry

The purpose of a thought experiment, as the term was used by quantum and relativity physicists in the early part of the twentieth century, was not prediction (as is the goal of classical experimental science), but more defensible representations of present 'realities'. Indeed, one of the best-known examples of a thought experiment ('Schrodinger's cat') demonstrates the impossibility of prediction at the quantum level. Speculative fictions, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to the Star Wars saga, can be read as socio-technical thought experiments that can help us to apprehend and comprehend present 'realities' and uncertainties, and to anticipate and critique possible futures. In this paper I will demonstrate how two examples of popular speculative fictions, Frank Herbert's Dune (1965) and Ursula Le Guin's The Telling (2000), can be read as thought experiments that describe problematic aspects of contemporary social and cultural transformations. I will argue that critical and deconstructive readings of these novels can help us to produce anticipatory critiques of possible ways in which democratic institutions are being transformed by globalisation. I will conclude by considering the implications of such anticipatory critiques for generating questions, problems and issues in educational inquiry and for choosing appropriate methodologies for investigating them.

Intertextual turns in curriculum inquiry : fictions, diffractions and deconstructions

This thesis is based primarily on work published in academic refereed journals between 1994 and 2003. Taken as a whole, the thesis explores and enacts an evolving methodology for curriculum inquiry which foregrounds the generativity of fiction in reading, writing and representing curriculum problems and issues. This methodology is informed by the narrative and textual 'turns' in the humanities and social sciences - especially poststructuralist and deconstructive approaches to literary and cultural criticism - and is performed as a series of narrative experiments and 'intertextual turns'. Narrative theory suggests that we can think of all discourse as taking the form of a story, and poststructuralist theorising invites us to think of all discourse as taking the form of a text; this thesis argues that intertextual and deconstructive readings of the stories and texts that constitute curriculum work can produce new meanings and understandings. The thesis places particular emphasis on the uses of fiction and fictional modes of representation in curriculum inquiry and suggests that our purposes might sometimes be better served by (re)presenting the texts we produce as deliberate fictions rather than as 'factual' stories. The thesis also demonstrates that some modes and genres of fiction can help us to move our research efforts beyond 'reflection' (an optical metaphor for displacing an image) by producing texts that 'diffract' the normative storylines of curriculum inquiry (diffraction is an optical metaphor for transformation). The thesis begins with an introduction that situates (autobiographically and historically) the narrative experiments and intertextual turns performed in the thesis as both advancements in, and transgressions of, deliberative and critical reconceptualist curriculum theorising. Several of the chapters that follow examine textual continuities and discontinuities between the various objects and methods of curriculum inquiry and particular fictional genres (such as crime stories and science fiction) and/or particular fictional works (including Bram Stoker's Dracula, J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace, and Ursula Le Guin's The Telling). Other chapters demonstrate how intertextual and deconstructive reading strategies can inform inquiries focused on specific subject matters (with particular reference to environmental education) and illuminate contemporary issues and debates in curriculum (especially the internationalisation and globalisation of curriculum work). The thesis concludes with suggestions for further refinement of methodologies that privilege narrative and fiction in curriculum inquiry.

Las cosas por su nombre : Notas sobre la palabra en algunas novelas fantásticas

En este trabajo se plantean algunas aproximaciones a la cuestión del uso del lenguaje y sus representaciones dentro del fantasy, profundizando una investigación anterior sobre el tema (Gagliardi, 2011). En la literatura fantástica se le asigna frecuentemente a la palabra un valor mágico y performativo, en especial dentro de los relatos de la denominada "fantasía heroica". Nuestra hipótesis es que existen al menos dos representaciones diferentes sobre el rol de la palabra en estas ficciones: unas que siguen la tradición de Cratilo ("El que conoce los nombres conoce también las cosas") y otra más reciente que se cuestiona la relación unívoca entre palabra y referente, al mismo tiempo que problematiza cuestiones como la identidad. De este modo, la palabra, su valor y posibilidades dentro de las obras literarias que proponemos explorar participa de la construcción del universo ficcional, su cosmovisión y verosímil. La selección de obras literarias para esta presentación tiene como fin mostrar algunos casos representativos que puedan extenderse luego a un corpus más amplio dado que esta comunicación plantea un estado de la cuestión. Tomaremos las novelas Un mago de Terramar (Le Guin); Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal (Rowling); El nombre del viento (Rothfuss) y El dador de recuerdos (Lowry). De todas ellas analizaremos fragmentos en los cuales aparezcan las representaciones sobre el lenguaje y propondremos una clasificación tentativa al respecto

Las cosas por su nombre : Notas sobre la palabra en algunas novelas fantásticas

En este trabajo se plantean algunas aproximaciones a la cuestión del uso del lenguaje y sus representaciones dentro del fantasy, profundizando una investigación anterior sobre el tema (Gagliardi, 2011). En la literatura fantástica se le asigna frecuentemente a la palabra un valor mágico y performativo, en especial dentro de los relatos de la denominada "fantasía heroica". Nuestra hipótesis es que existen al menos dos representaciones diferentes sobre el rol de la palabra en estas ficciones: unas que siguen la tradición de Cratilo ("El que conoce los nombres conoce también las cosas") y otra más reciente que se cuestiona la relación unívoca entre palabra y referente, al mismo tiempo que problematiza cuestiones como la identidad. De este modo, la palabra, su valor y posibilidades dentro de las obras literarias que proponemos explorar participa de la construcción del universo ficcional, su cosmovisión y verosímil. La selección de obras literarias para esta presentación tiene como fin mostrar algunos casos representativos que puedan extenderse luego a un corpus más amplio dado que esta comunicación plantea un estado de la cuestión. Tomaremos las novelas Un mago de Terramar (Le Guin); Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal (Rowling); El nombre del viento (Rothfuss) y El dador de recuerdos (Lowry). De todas ellas analizaremos fragmentos en los cuales aparezcan las representaciones sobre el lenguaje y propondremos una clasificación tentativa al respecto

Las cosas por su nombre : Notas sobre la palabra en algunas novelas fantásticas

En este trabajo se plantean algunas aproximaciones a la cuestión del uso del lenguaje y sus representaciones dentro del fantasy, profundizando una investigación anterior sobre el tema (Gagliardi, 2011). En la literatura fantástica se le asigna frecuentemente a la palabra un valor mágico y performativo, en especial dentro de los relatos de la denominada "fantasía heroica". Nuestra hipótesis es que existen al menos dos representaciones diferentes sobre el rol de la palabra en estas ficciones: unas que siguen la tradición de Cratilo ("El que conoce los nombres conoce también las cosas") y otra más reciente que se cuestiona la relación unívoca entre palabra y referente, al mismo tiempo que problematiza cuestiones como la identidad. De este modo, la palabra, su valor y posibilidades dentro de las obras literarias que proponemos explorar participa de la construcción del universo ficcional, su cosmovisión y verosímil. La selección de obras literarias para esta presentación tiene como fin mostrar algunos casos representativos que puedan extenderse luego a un corpus más amplio dado que esta comunicación plantea un estado de la cuestión. Tomaremos las novelas Un mago de Terramar (Le Guin); Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal (Rowling); El nombre del viento (Rothfuss) y El dador de recuerdos (Lowry). De todas ellas analizaremos fragmentos en los cuales aparezcan las representaciones sobre el lenguaje y propondremos una clasificación tentativa al respecto

Kuvad och jämlik på planeten Vinter : Le Guins feministiska science fiction-roman The Left Hand of Darkness ur Foucaults maktperspektiv

Studien är en applicering av Foucaults Övervakning och straff på science fiction-romanen The Left Hand of Darkness av Le Guin. Fokus låg på hur makten drabbar huvudkaraktärerna; syftet var att notera hur de gör motstånd mot maktutövningen och att ta fasta på alternativa maktrelationer som kan influera verkligt politiskt arbete mot en bättre, mer jämlik värld. Att använda Foucaults idéer på liknande sätt är vanligt. Analysen består av sex sekvenser som utspelar sig på planeten Vinter i The Left Hand of Darkness. Landsförvisningar för att återupprätta härskarens makt, både avsaknaden och upprättandet av framstegsmyt och en etik som förespråkar jämlikhet utmärkte monarkin Karhide; kuvade kroppar i disciplinens förtecken och en makt som är sammantvinnad med vetandet kännetecknade byråkratin Orgoreyn. Slutsats: Det är nödvändigt att uppoffra sig för att få till stånd förändringar. Den politiske visionären kan dessutom ha användning för en särskild etik, en mindre aggressiv framstegsmyt och horisontellt samarbete.

Terraforming: Ecopolitical Transformations and Environmentalism in Science Fiction /

Terraforming is the process of making other worlds habitable for human life. This book asks how science fiction has imagined how we shape both our world and other planets and how stories of terraforming reflect on science, society and environmentalism.

Making the Men of Tomorrow: American Science Fiction and the Politics of Masculinity, 1965 – 1974

Suggesting that the political diversity of American science fiction during the 1960s and early 1970s constitutes a response to the dominance of social liberalism throughout the 1940s and 1950s, I argue in Making the Men of Tomorrow that the development of new hegemonic masculinities in science fiction is a consequence of political speculation. Focusing on four representative and influential texts from the 1960s and early 1970s, Philip K. Dick’s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and Ubik, Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, this thesis explores the relationship between different conceptions of hegemonic masculinity and three separate but related political ideologies: the social ethic, market libertarianism, and socialist libertarianism. In the first two chapters in which I discuss Dick’s novels, I argue that Dick interrogates organizational masculinity as part of a larger project that suggests the inevitable infeasibility of both the social ethic and its predecessor, social liberalism. In the next chapter, I shift my attention to Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress as a way of showing how, unlike Dick, other authors of the 1960s and early 1970s sought to move beyond social liberalism by imagining how new political ideologies, in this case market libertarianism, might change the way men see themselves. Having demonstrated how the libertarian potential of Heinlein’s novel is ultimately undermined by its insistent and uncompromising biological determinism, I then discuss how Le Guin’s The Dispossessed uses the socialist libertarianism of the moon Anarres to suggest a more egalitarian form of masculinity, one that makes possible, to some extent at least, a future in which men might embrace not only the mutual aid of socialism, but also the primacy of individual rights that is at the heart of all forms of libertarianism and liberalism.