I am very pleased to announce the publication of The Postnational Fantasy: Essays on Postcolonialism, Cosmopolitics and Science Fiction, my first co-edited collection of essays with with my good friends and colleagues Masood Ashraf Raja and Swaralipi Nandi!
You can purchase it from the publisher McFarland & Co here, from Amazon here in print and here in Kindle ebook format, from Barnes & Noble here, or from Books-A-Million here.
Below, I have included links to reviews, the book jacket copy, editor biographies, and the table of contents.
Rikk Mulligan reviews The Postnational Fantasy in the SFRA Review #298: “As part of McFarland’s series of critical explorations in science fiction and fantasy (SF/F), this collection of twelve essays analyzes works ranging from novels and short stories to films and computer games, through the combined lenses of postcolonial- ism, nationalism, globalization, and cosmopolitanism and the theories of SF/F criticism.” He also says, “Overall these essays are engaging and encompass a variety of concepts that consider not only a multicul- tural (or semi-homogenized) global postnationalism but also preserve space for Creole and Mestizo identi- ties as dynamic hybridities.” Read his full review online here.
The Postnational Fantasy: Essays on Postcolonialism, Cosmopolitics and Science Fiction
Edited by Masood Ashraf Raja, Jason W. Ellis and Swaralipi Nandi
Foreword by Donald M. Hassler
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6141-7
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8555-0
notes, bibliographies, index
225pp. softcover 2011
Price: $40.00
Available for immediate shipment
About the Book
In twelve critical and interdisciplinary essays, this text examines the relationship between the fantastic in novels, movies and video games and real-world debates about nationalism, globalization and cosmopolitanism. Topics covered include science fiction and postcolonialism, issues of ethnicity, nation and transnational discourse. Altogether, these essays chart a new discursive space, where postcolonial theory and science fiction and fantasy studies work cooperatively to expand our understanding of the fantastic, while simultaneously expanding the scope of postcolonial discussions.
Table of Contents
Foreword by DONALD M. HASSLER
Introduction by MASOOD A. RAJA and SWARALIPI NANDI
Part I: Postcolonial Issues in Science Fiction
1. Science Fiction as Experimental Ground for Issues of the Postcolonial Novel by MICHELE BRAUN
2. Truth Is Stranger: The Postnational “Aliens” of Biofiction by KAREN CARDOZO and BANU SUBRAMANIAM
3. Forms of Compromise: The Interaction of Humanity, Technology and Landscape in Ken MacLeod’s Night Sessions by ADAM FRISCH
4. The Language of Postnationality: Cultural Identity via Science Fictional Trajectories by CHRIS PAK
Part II: The Nation and Ethnicity in Science Fiction
5. The “Popular” Science: Bollywood’s Take on Science Fiction and the Discourse of Nations by SWARALIPI NANDI
6. Postcolonial Ethics and Identity in Mike Resnick’s Kirinyaga by JENN BRANDT
7. The Frontier Myth and Racial Politics by ÁNGEL MATEOS-APARICIO MARTÍN-ALBO
8. Dystopia and the Postcolonial Nation by SUPARNO BANERJEE
Part III: Towards a Postnational Discourse
9. Body Speaks: Communication and the Limits of Nationalism in Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy by KATHERINE R. BROAD
10. Engineering a Cosmopolitan Future: Race, Nation, and World of Warcraft by JASON W. ELLIS
11. When “Nation” Stops Making Sense: Mexican and Giorgio Agamben’s “State of Exception” in Children of Men by STACY SCHMITT RUSNAK
12. Fantastic Language/Political Reporting: The Postcolonial SF Illocutionary Force Is with Us byMARLEEN S. BARR
About the Contributors
Index
About the Editors
Masood Ashraf Raja is an assistant professor of Postcolonial literature and theory at the University of North Texas, and editor of Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies. Jason W. Ellis is an English literature Ph.D candidate at Kent State University and holder of an M.A. in science fiction studies from the University of Liverpool. Swaralipi Nandi is an English literature Ph.D candidate at Kent State University, whose research focus is postcolonial literature and theory.
Also read the announcement on Masood Raja’s blog here.
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