LanguageTerm (authority = ISO 639-3:2007); (type = text)
English
Abstract (type = abstract)
This dissertation reveals the influence of Caribbean environments on late 20th century global constructions of the future, from science fiction to early infrastructures of the internet. While Anglo- Americans critics have generally adhered to a temporal binary where they grant futurity to science fiction, while pushing the Caribbean into the past, my research undoes this false dichotomy, uncovering a new narrative of the future that writers create from tropical Caribbean environments. In the period following decolonization, Caribbean authors used tropical environments as a narrative framework that deranged a teleological ordering of history: narrative, rather than tracing progress, patterned itself after ecological processes like rot, decomposition, and re-uptake. Constructions of the future departed from development, taking on temporalized forms like annihilation and ruination. This productive ecological destruction then echoed in narrative forms throughout the Caribbean before finally influencing science fiction novels, corporate white papers, and technologist writing from the metropole. This dissertation thus demonstrates how, for the past 60 years, the metropole’s construction of its future builds on the Caribbean’s tropical environments and the ecological ruination that lies coiled within these tropical roots. In revealing how science fiction and technology - two mediums assumed to be the product of capitalistic progress - are rooted in productive ecological destruction, this dissertation redefines critical assumptions about colonial capitalism and the history of technology. In the process, this research does more than recover SF works by Caribbean authors: it makes the Caribbean central to the interpretation of both narrative form and the material constructions of futurity.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Literatures in English
Subject (authority = local)
Topic
Caribbean
Subject (authority = LCSH)
Topic
Authors, Caribbean
Subject (authority = LCSH)
Topic
Future, The, in literature
Subject (authority = LCSH)
Topic
Science fiction
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_11656
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (x, 197 pages)
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
School of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore10001600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.