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至2018年间出版的非洲科幻小说(SF)的类型学。其中心目的是调查在这一时期全球出版业越来越多的参与如何在形式上、主题上和媒体上影响非洲科幻。泛非洲和多语种的非洲科幻文体在2006年至2018年期间蓬勃发展，学者们认为它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，设想了另类非洲的未来，而且作品最初是独立出版的。然而，随着热潮的发展，包括漫威漫画、迪士尼·海珀龙和HBO在内的国际出版商和电视网络越来越多地侵占了非洲科幻电影。到目前为止，还没有研究考察这如何影响非洲科幻小说。该项目的主要贡献是填补这一空白，并洞察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什么混合形式，以及对其所谓的自我代表和解放潜力的影响。该项目遵循三个步骤：1)建立了非洲科幻的工作定义，并初步划分了繁荣的阶段。2)确定了具有代表性的非洲科幻作品选材，建立了类型学。根据对形式、主题和出版媒介的初步分析，每个阶段最多选择五部葡萄牙语、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的选择进行了详细的分析，在这里被理解为通过多个符号系统的并置传递的符号信息。3)通过对不同类型的比较分析，确定了类型学内部的趋势和变化，并将这些变化与后殖民学术所确立的全球文化市场的不同需求联系起来。

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.