Science Fiction from Québec

This first book-length study of French-language science fiction from Canada provides an introduction to the subgenre known as “SFQ” (science fiction from Québec). In addition, it offers in-depth analyses of SFQ sagas by Jacques Brossard, Esther Rochon, and Élisabeth Vonarburg. It demonstrates how these multivolume narratives of colonization and postcolonial societies exploit themes typical of postcolonial literatures, including the denunciation of oppressive colonial systems, the utopian hope for a better future, and the celebration of tolerant pluralistic societies. A bibliography of SFQ available in English translation is included.

Amy J. Ransom is professor of French at Central Michigan University. She earned the Science Fiction Research Association’s Pioneer Award in 2007 for her work on French-language Canadian science fiction. Her previous publications include a book about classic French fantastic stories, as well as essays on Québec’s fantastic and horror literature and film, alternate history, and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French literature.

Amy J. Ransom. Series Editors Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 275
Bibliographic Info: appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3824-2
Imprint: McFarland
Series: Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Preface and Acknowledgments      1

INTRODUCTION. Articulations: Québec, Science Fiction, and the Postcolonial      5

ONE. SFQ: History and Themes      33

TWO. Alien Nations: Dominance and Oppression in the SFQ Saga      60

THREE. Utopia and New World Myth in Québec’s Science-Fiction Sagas      118

FOUR. Logiques métisses: Hybridity and Transculturalism      182

CONCLUSION      210

Appendix: A Selected Bibliography of French-Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy in English      213

Chapter Notes      223

Works Cited—Primary Sources      235

Works Cited—Secondary Sources      243

Index      257

“the first book-length study on the topic…exciting study”—Science Fiction Studies.