Narednog vikenda (15-16. novembar) na Univerzitetu Kent u Londonu održava se naučna konferencija na temu naučne fantastike "Strangers in Strange Lands: Mapping the Relationship between Anthropology and Science Fiction" a na njoj će biti predstavljen i rad jednog srpskog autora, sa temom vezanom za noviju srpsku SF književnost. Izlagač je dr Marko Pišev, istraživač-saradnik na Institutu za etnologiju i antropologiju Filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu, poznavaocima horora poznat po izuzetnoj zbirci priča strave, FOTOFOBIJA. On će na ovoj konferenciji naživo predstaviti rad koji je napisao zajedno sa dr Bojanom Žikićem (koji zbog obaveza neće s njim biti u Londonu), pod naslovom "Culture in Vacuum: The infernal others in Serbian Science Fiction of the 1990s".
Ovaj rad se bavi prikazom Drugosti u jednom kratkom romanu i u dve priče srpskih autora objavljenim početkom/sredinom 1990-ih, za vreme građanskog rata i sankcija, i istražuje kako su pisci iz "kulture u vakuumu" (tj. pod sankcijama, u izolaciji svake vrste) prikazivali Zapadne sile, iste one koje su ih izolovale, u svojim fantastičnim delima. Posle uvoda koji daje kratku istoriju SF-a u našoj književnosti, a zatim i kulturno-istorijski kontekst (1990-te: raspad zemlje, ratovi, sankcije...), rad analizira sledeća dela: "Sveti rat" Gorana Skrobonje, "Sva vučja deca" Radmila Anđelkovića i "Tri (miliona) kostura" Dragana R. Filipovića.
Upravo ja sam bio taj koji je autorima skrenuo pažnju na ovu konferenciju, čim sam saznao za nju, a malo je falilo da i lično uzmem učešća, ali bilo mi je preskupo da tamo idem o svom trošku (samo prokleta engleska viza košta skoro 100 E, da im 100 mrtvih kraljeva...!) a bez institucije iza sebe, trenutno, rešio sam da se ipak poštedim tih izdataka. Takođe sam autorima ukazao na određene rezerve po pitanju radne verzije rada koju sam temeljito pročitao i anotirao, i siguran sam da će rad, ukoliko moje sugestije budu uvažene, biti još bolji nego što ionako već jeste. Prirodu nekih od mojih sugestija bolji poznavaoci mojih stavova mogu naslutiti već ako bace pogled na apstrakt: tiču se, pre svega, izbalansiranosti u prikazu uzroka i posledice, odnosno ko je prvi stvorio "vakuum", ko je prvi koga demonizovao, te kako i zašto - jer rad se, zapravo, bavi reaktivnom demonizacijom demonizatora od strane već demonizovanih, tako da je potrebno malo opreznije (i preciznije) govoriti o "paranoji", "ksenofobiji", "netolernaciji drugosti" i "infernalnom Drugom". Ali, kao što rekoh, ovaj rad je dobra okosnica za usmeno izlaganje koje će Pišev, siguran sam, suvereno da obavi -kao što je uradio i sa radom koji smo nas dvojica zajednički pisali, o "Ruralnom gotiku", izložen na jednoj konferenciji u Beogradu aprila ove godine - a kad dođe vreme za objavljivanje, tekst će sigurno biti doteran.
Do tada, evo kako glasi apstrakt rada.
Do tada, evo kako glasi apstrakt rada.
Culture in Vacuum. The Infernal Others in Serbian Science Fiction of 1990s
The closing decade of the last century saw Serbia (then part of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia formed with Montenegro) traumatised by wars, UN sanctions, and internal turmoil. The regime of Slobodan Milošević skilfully manipulated these socio-political conditions by placing the blame on the international community (i.e. the West), allegedly unlawfully and unjustly retributive towards Serbs. This political tactic, roughly speaking, created a dominant sense of social paranoia and desperation among the people of the country, together with some resentment towards Western countries, and/or their political elites. The brooding sentiments of this types and contents gradually became engaged in many public discourses by deploying the expressive means of self-marginalisation. In Serbian science fiction, or an important part of it, the analogue process of self-marginalization obtained a conceptual form of collective martyrdom, representing the central motive of Us against Them, related to the paradigm of a cosmic conflict between forces of Good and Evil (whereas Good, in conclusion, triumphs only occasionally). The identity of the Other in such narratives usually did not match the ethnic or national identity of the war enemies or the Western powers, but allusions towards the latter have proven to be firm and concise. The main models of “othering” in the indicated contexts operated with the notions of immense technological and economical advantages of the Other, as well as its agenda to destroy Serbia due to the inherent righteous nature of Serbian folk and their deep-rooted opposition to the world of Evil. The storylines in such works of fiction were often framed in different relations to the concept of cosmic struggle of Light versus Darkness – an element that brings them closer to the discourse of historical legends and mythology of traditional Serbian culture and Orthodox Christianity, than to the (post)modern science fiction literature which preceded and followed 1990’s in Serbian mainstream and genre-based literary production. In this sense, a relevant body of Serbian SF narratives of the 1990’s deserves to be explored as a culturally-specific phenomenon, partly developed from modern, partly from traditional fantastic discourses, and simultaneously, deeply immersed in socio-political circumstances of the era.
Key words: Serbian science fiction; 1990’s; we/others; good versus evil.
A evo i zvanične najave i programa ove konferencije.
Strangers in Strange Lands
15th-16th November 2014
As part of the University of Kent's 50th anniversary celebrations, the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the University of Kent present "Strangers in Strange Lands: Mapping the Relationship between Anthropology and Science Fiction", a two-day symposium organised by current and former departmental PhD students and hosted by the School of Anthropology and Conservation with sponsorship from The Science Fiction Foundation (UK).
The event will tackle the numerous relationships and parallels between science fiction and anthropology and provide a platform for an energetic, multi-disciplinary discussion between established scholars and postgraduate students from a diverse range of institutions and disciplines. Science fiction, like anthropology, is involved in producing discourses about societies, alterity and political imaginations. Authors in both fields attempt to convey to their readers a coherent impression of a cultural whole, presenting them with alternative social orders; an endeavour in which science fiction is perhaps more successful, at least if the size of its readership is anything to go by.
'STRANGERS IN STRANGE LANDS'
University of Kent, Canterbury,
15th-16th November 2014
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Panel Session #1: Thinking Anthropology through Science Fiction.
Chair: Dr. Matt Hodges
The invention of Morel/suicide by representation (Natalia Garcia-Bonet, Kent)
Tradition and Cultural Memory in the Imagined Communities of Science Fiction Literature (Jędrzej Burszta, SWPS Warsaw)
The Science Fiction of Chad Oliver and his Anthropological visions (Michael Fisher, Kent)
Sex with Aliens and other problems: Fictional anthropologists in Science Fiction Films (Gavin Weston, Goldsmiths)
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Dolores Martinez
"Science Fiction and an Anthropology of the Imagination"
Panel Session #2: Science Fiction and the (re)imagining of Others.
Chair: Dr. Glenn Bowman
Culture in Vacuum: The infernal others in Serbian Science Fiction of the 1990s (Bojan Zikic & Marko Pisev, Belgrade)
Post-apocalyptic Communism in Czech cinema (David Sorfa, Edinburgh)
Projections of Dredd: science fiction film production and the anthropological imagination in South Africa (Jessica Dickson, Harvard)
Panel Session #3: Imagined technologies and fictional science.
Chair: Prof. Michael Fischer
An ethnography of the future (Joseph Lindley & Dhruv Sharma, Lancaster)
Achieving successful outcomes from Science Fiction Inspired Technologies (Sally Applin, Kent)
Thai Sci-Fi comics "for a new breed of scientists and engineers" (Birgit Buergi, NUS)
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Paul March-Russell
"Strangers to Ourselves: J.G. Ballard's Rogue Anthropology"
Panel Session #4: Monsters and portals: when science fiction invades reality.
Chair Prof. Peter Pels
Becoming part of a "Lurking Evil": Lovecraftian modernity, Alien Alterity and Monstrous Hybridity in Contemporary Occultural Praxis (Justin Woodman, Goldsmiths)
Dracula: an obscure hybrid (Daniela Peluso, Kent)
316 and The leap of faith: Reading the future present in contemporary American Science Fiction (Susannah Crockford, LSE)
Special Guest Talk: Gwyneth Jones
"Aliens In The Twenty First Century"
Panel Session #5: Imagining procreation and gendering others.
Prof. Tim Jenkins
I'm the monster's mother: Sex, gender and the Xenomorph Queen (Jamie Lawson, Durham)
From childless world to a world of perfect babies: what "Gattaca" and "Children of men" have to say about the current uses of assisted reproductive technologies (Debora Allebrandt, Rio Grande do Sul)
Aliens as an Invasive Procreative Power (Marika Moisseeff, CNRS)
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