I have a new piece just out on surveillance and security in science fiction novels in the decade after 9/11.
https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v24i1.18242
Based on a formally sampled survey of 120 post-9/11 transatlantic science fiction (SF) novels in English published between 2002–2011 inclusive, and a thematic reading of thirty-eight of these works, this paper analyses the place and treatment of surveillance and security in the culture of Empire. The paper identifies several important post-9/11 interventions in SF and argues that, in comparison to some of the weak mainstream literary work on 9/11 and the Long War, SF has produced some of the bleakest and most insightful responses. However, it also argues that there is a clear transatlantic division between the critical, sharp, and cynical work being produced by British SF authors and the predominantly nostalgic, militaristic, or techno-utopian responses of North American SF authors. It concludes with some reflections not just on the place of post-9/11 surveillance and security in SF but on the continuing relevance of SF to critical surveillance and security studies, and in broader social terms.
It’s part of a brilliant special double issue on Surveillance and Literature, edited by recent SSN book prize-winner, Stephanie J. Brown.
https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/issue/view/1104
This project is a side project to my main research work that I’ve been working on in the background for over a decade, and is a real labour of love. There will be other forthcoming papers from the project, which deal with the following decade 2012-2021, and the overall thematic analysis of around 250 SF novels over the two decades following 9/11 (2002-2021).
ubisurv 