A Typology of African Science Fiction (2006–2018): Strategies of Self-Representation in the Global Cultural Marketplace

该项目从非洲研究、科幻学术和比较文化研究的角度建立了2006年至2018年出版的非洲科幻小说（SF）的类型学。它的中心目标是调查如何在此期间越来越多的参与全球出版影响非洲SF正式，主题和媒体。泛非洲和多语言的非洲科幻类型在2006年至2018年期间蓬勃发展，学者们认为这是一种革命性的自我表现模式，因为它构成了对殖民科幻的后殖民重写，想象了非洲的另一种未来，而且作品最初是独立出版的。然而，随着繁荣的发展，包括漫威漫画、迪士尼和HBO在内的国际出版商和电视网络越来越多地占用非洲科幻。到目前为止，还没有研究表明这是如何影响非洲SF的。本项目的核心贡献是填补这一空白，并提供深入了解非洲科幻如何抵制或适应全球文化市场的需求，在这一过程中出现了哪些混合形式，以及其所谓的自我代表和解放潜力的后果是什么。本项目遵循三个步骤：1）它建立了非洲科幻的工作定义和繁荣阶段的初步划分。2)它确定了非洲科幻作品的代表性选择，并建立了类型学。根据对形式、主题和出版媒介的初步分析，每个阶段选择最多五部葡萄牙语、法语或英语表达的作品。为了建立类型学，随后对形式的意识形态进行了详细的分析，在这里被理解为通过多个符号系统的并置所传递的象征性信息。3)它通过对不同类型的比较分析来确定类型学中的趋势和变化，并将这些与后殖民学术中建立的全球文化市场的异质性需求相关联。

This project establishes a typology of African science fiction (SF) published between 2006 and 2018 from the perspective of African studies, science fiction scholarship, and comparative cultural studies. Its central aim is to investigate how the increasing involvement of global publishing during this period affected African SF formally, thematically, and medially. The pan-African and multilingual genre of African SF boomed during the 2006 to 2018 period, and scholars considered it a revolutionary mode of self-representation because it constituted a postcolonial rewriting of colonial SF, imagined alternative African futures, and because works were initially published independently. However, as the boom developed, international publishers and television networks including Marvel Comics, Disney Hyperion, and HBO increasingly appropriated African SF. To date, no studies exist that examine how this affected African SF. The central contribution of this project is to fill that gap, and provide insight into how African SF resisted or adapted to the demands of the global cultural marketplace, what hybrid forms emerged in this process, and what the consequences were for its alleged self-representational and emancipatory potential.This project follows three steps: 1) It establishes a working definition of African SF and a preliminary division of the boom in phases. 2) It determines a representative selection of African SF works and establishes a typology. Based on an initial analysis of form, theme, and medium of publication, up to five works of Portuguese, French, or English expression are selected for each phase. To establish the typology, the selection is subsequently analyzed in detail for the ideology of form, understood here as the symbolic message transmitted by the juxtaposition of multiple sign-systems. 3) It determines the trends and changes within the typology through comparative analysis of the different types, and correlates these with the heterogeneous demands of the global cultural marketplace as established in postcolonial scholarship.