Genres of Empire: An Introduction

帝国 文学类 浪漫 文学批评 幻想 叙述的 批评 殖民主义 历史 艺术 美学 哲学 考古
作者
Alyssa A. Hunziker,Mitch R. Murray
出处
期刊:College Literature 卷期号:50 (2-3): 157-185
标识
DOI:10.1353/lit.2023.a902215
摘要

Genres of Empire:An Introduction Alyssa A. Hunziker (bio) and Mitch R. Murray (bio) It is now a cliché to note that contemporary literature and criticism have undergone a "genre turn" (Martin 2017; Leypoldt 2018; Tally 2017). Well-established authors of what critics deem distinctly literary fiction have taken up previously maligned popular genres like science fiction (SF), fantasy, westerns, postapocalypse, horror, superhero narratives, weird, romance, and so on. As Andrew Hoberek notes, literature at the end of the 2000s experienced "a thoroughgoing breakdown of the traditional barriers separating genre fiction from its more prestigious cousins" (2018, 66). Understandably, this development has allowed critics to make hay out of an emergent literary canon. These literary critical discussions frequently invoke well-established authors like Cormac McCarthy, China Miéville, Junot Díaz, Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon, Emily St. John Mandel, Jennifer Egan, Karen Russell, and Colson Whitehead. Yet much of the critical interest in genre fiction, as this brief survey should indicate, coalesces around what turns out to be a rather small core of authors: mainly white, mainly male, mainly Anglo-American. This special double issue of College Literature embraces the excitement of genre fiction's newfound place of prominence in literature—particularly that enjoyed by the contemporary novel—while broadening this emergent canon and centering its engagements with [End Page 157] empire. Our impetus, more specifically, is that the genre turn often hits its explanatory limits when it comes to matters of empire, colonization, and settler colonialism. For us, the term "genres of empire" has two important meanings. First, it identifies literary generic registers that seem especially adept at grappling with the realities of empire in our present moment. Second, the phrase denotes genres, or modes, of imperial domination itself. Rather than reproducing sharp divisions across imperial, colonial, settler-colonial, and neo-imperial categories, our contributors point to a range of contemporary imperial formations. We use the term empire broadly to include current and former sites of colonial and settler-colonial occupation while also acknowledging transimperial systems, which have linked diverse territories and overlap multiple imperial regimes. While some contributors in this issue explore traditional sites of European colonialism and its vestiges, others highlight multinational capital, climate colonialism, colonial infrastructure, international law, and militarism as new or reinscribed "genres" of empire. Still others, like Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado and Kate Harlin, show how US- and UK-dominated publishing overdetermines literary genres in Anglophone contexts, subsuming multiple forms and national, cultural, and linguistic groups into ill-defined categories like Latinx or African literatures. Meanwhile, in the North American context—which many of our contributors treat—multiethnic, Indigenous, and African American genre fiction has gained increasing recognition by critics and publishers alike. We have seen an explosion of attempts by artists to articulate genre fiction's ability to grasp, critique, and posit alternatives to ongoing and emergent modes of settler-colonial and imperial domination. For instance, critics have noted the literary achievements of Marlon James, who famously set out to write the "African Game of Thrones," and C Pam Zhang, whose western novel How Much of These Hills is Gold (2020) straddles historical and speculative fiction to narrate historical and present convergences between Native American and Chinese American experiences with US settler-colonialism (Tolentino 2019; Harrison 2019; Hunziker, forthcoming). Charles Yu's fiction, which two of our contributors examine, is a standout case. His recent National Book Award-winning novel, Interior Chinatown (2020), is something of an encyclopedia of popular genres and mediums—from the police procedural to the kung fu movie—reworked to offer a critical account of their constitutive imperial histories. Prestige television like HBO's Watchmen (2019) and Lovecraft Country (2020), [End Page 158] meanwhile, have given greater prominence to the role of empire and structural racism in the origins of their genres—superhero narratives, horror, and science fiction—while using those same genres to create critical accounts of contemporary racism and imperialism.1 Yet other generic forays are relegated to the still relatively undistinguished realms of YA fiction (Rebecca Roanhorse's Sixth World and Between Earth and Sky series and Cherie Dimaline's Marrow Thieves novels)2 and comics such as Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefenkgi's...

科研通智能强力驱动
Strongly Powered by AbleSci AI
科研通是完全免费的文献互助平台,具备全网最快的应助速度,最高的求助完成率。 对每一个文献求助,科研通都将尽心尽力,给求助人一个满意的交代。
实时播报
共享精神应助wangdunli采纳,获得10
1秒前
海棠未眠完成签到,获得积分20
1秒前
YUMI发布了新的文献求助10
1秒前
汉堡包应助迷人煎饼采纳,获得10
2秒前
彪yu发布了新的文献求助10
2秒前
2秒前
3秒前
lq102021发布了新的文献求助10
3秒前
靓仔发布了新的文献求助10
4秒前
传奇3应助尊敬怀薇采纳,获得10
4秒前
NexusExplorer应助呆萌的如萱采纳,获得10
4秒前
4秒前
刻苦如凡发布了新的文献求助10
5秒前
完美世界应助chopin采纳,获得10
5秒前
小蘑菇应助我要发nature采纳,获得10
6秒前
丰富的水卉完成签到,获得积分10
6秒前
啦啦啦哟发布了新的文献求助10
6秒前
Lucas应助cun采纳,获得30
6秒前
岳粤完成签到,获得积分10
6秒前
科研通AI2S应助Yancy采纳,获得10
7秒前
思源应助零听采纳,获得10
7秒前
7秒前
小二郎应助听闻采纳,获得10
7秒前
8秒前
YUMI完成签到,获得积分10
8秒前
啧啧啧发布了新的文献求助10
8秒前
阿强完成签到,获得积分10
8秒前
糊涂一时发布了新的文献求助10
8秒前
不要蕉绿完成签到,获得积分10
9秒前
大气沛容完成签到,获得积分10
9秒前
9秒前
9秒前
岳粤发布了新的文献求助10
9秒前
myy完成签到,获得积分10
9秒前
10秒前
xuxingjie完成签到,获得积分10
10秒前
曲夜白完成签到 ,获得积分10
11秒前
包容豪完成签到,获得积分10
11秒前
LD完成签到 ,获得积分10
11秒前
yesss应助am采纳,获得10
11秒前
高分求助中
Continuum Thermodynamics and Material Modelling 3000
Production Logging: Theoretical and Interpretive Elements 2700
Les Mantodea de Guyane Insecta, Polyneoptera 1000
Conference Record, IAS Annual Meeting 1977 820
England and the Discovery of America, 1481-1620 600
Teaching language in context (Third edition) by Derewianka, Beverly; Jones, Pauline 550
電気学会論文誌D(産業応用部門誌), 141 巻, 11 号 510
热门求助领域 (近24小时)
化学 材料科学 生物 医学 工程类 有机化学 生物化学 物理 纳米技术 计算机科学 内科学 化学工程 复合材料 基因 遗传学 物理化学 催化作用 量子力学 光电子学 冶金
热门帖子
关注 科研通微信公众号,转发送积分 3582715
求助须知:如何正确求助?哪些是违规求助? 3151997
关于积分的说明 9490792
捐赠科研通 2854242
什么是DOI,文献DOI怎么找? 1569090
邀请新用户注册赠送积分活动 734913
科研通“疑难数据库(出版商)”最低求助积分说明 720932