No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 1995. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 238-257).

<p>This creative thesis includes the first six chapters of <em>Aud of the Dead</em>, a novel that combines the genres of speculative science fiction, supernatural fiction, and dystopian fiction. The purpose of the novel is to provide an entertaining example of the soft science fiction genre where the plot exists for the characters, not the other way around.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The novel’s main protagonist is Aud, who was born on Earth in the year 2000. In the year 2024, Earth was invaded and subjugated by aliens called the Impixi. Years later, amid a successful Human rebellion, the actions of another alien species, the Architechs, left Earth in an apocalyptic shroud of toxic dust, vapor, and ash that would ultimately wipe out all life on the planet. But not every Human that died stayed dead. Millions of them became what would later be classified as a new sentient species, named “Anima” by the multigalactic scientific community. The former Humans, however, don’t believe they are a new species; they believe they are the ghosts, or “spectres,” of their living selves, and on their dead homeworld now called Quietus, they are essentially present-day Humans stripped down to the relentless pathos of the living dead. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The novel begins one hundred years after Earth’s apocalypse when the All Worlds War has come to an end. Aud is returning home from playing her part in the war when she suddenly finds herself responsible for an “Unquiet” called Ometa, a new Anima that was not born Human and did not die one century ago on Quietus. Ometa was an Architech in life, and now Aud must keep that epic secret while teaching Ometa how to navigate existence as an Anima. At the same time, Ometa teaches Aud how to overcome the limitations of living as the dead. </p>

Who wants to live forever? Jeder. Keiner. Die Suche nach irdischer Unsterblichkeit ist als Gegenstand von Erzählung so alt wie das Erzählen selbst: Seit Anbeginn der Überlieferung bildet diese Suche einen zentralen Stoff menschlicher Fantasie, der sich bis in die aktuellen Formen auch audiovisuellen Erzählens fortgesetzt hat. Ihre Narrative begleiten dabei ein ganz reales Streben um die Verlängerung des Lebens, das sich vom Okkultem zum Religiösen, vom Magischen zum Wissenschaftlichen und bis in die rezenten Life-Science des Silicon Valley an immer neue Kontexte zu heften verstand. Dem Wechselspiel beider Sphären widmet sich die vorliegende Arbeit: Sie verfolgt, wie sich im fortlaufenden Gespräch über die Unsterblichkeit Legenden und Beobachtungen, Geschichten und Untersuchungen, Visionen und Studien, kurz Fiktion und Forschung annähern. Gerade an der entstehenden Schnittstelle kann Erzählung ihr ganzes Potential entfalten: Wo sie zum Simulationsraum einzig in der Fiktion durchzuspielender Phänomene wird, da ist ihr Zugang exklusiv. Ihre Unsterblichen stecken den Rahmen für ein zukünftiges Operieren mit realen Lebensverlängerungsangeboten ab. Ihre Aushandlung von Unsterblichkeit generiert Deutungsangebote, die mit Philosophie, Publizistik und auch Naturwissenschaft um die Legitimität auch einer Interpretation bereits gegenwärtiger Konflikte konkurrieren.:1. Der Wunsch nach ewigem Leben 5 2. Konzepte der Unsterblichkeit 16 2.1 ›Der unsterbliche Sterbliche‹ 19 2.2 Gegenbilder – Weitere Unsterblichkeitskonzepte 22 2.3 Zwischenfazit 33 3. Tücken der Unsterblichkeit 36 3.1 Der Horizont der Religion 37 3.1.1 Unsterblichkeit im antiken Mythos 37 3.1.2 Abrahamitische Legenden – Der wandernde Jude und Al Chadhir 46 3.2 Vom Glaubensrahmen zum Erzählexperiment 64 3.2.1 Aufklärung über die Ewigkeit – Jonathan Swifts »Struldbruggs« 64 3.2.2 Provokation und Ermächtigung – Robert Maturins »Melmoth der Wanderer« und Mary Shelleys »Der sterbliche Unsterbliche« 72 3.2.3 Philosophie der Ewigkeit – Karel Čapeks »Die Sache Makropulos« 82 3.2.4 Die ewige Wiederkehr – Simone de Beauvoirs »Alle Menschen sind sterblich« 91 3.3 Moderne Fantasy – Die Elben des Tolkien-Universums 107 4. Trotz und Trost 118 5. Life-Science und third culture: Fortschritte zur Unsterblichkeit? 127 5.1 Eine Alternative zum Tod? 129 5.2 Annäherungen an die Unsterblichkeit 139 5.3 Mediale Inszenierungen des Lebensquells 153 5.4 Die neuen Herren des Todes 159 6. Narrative Reflexionen des Fortschritts – Neue Tücken der Unsterblichkeit 172 6.1 Leib, Seele, Identität 179 6.2 Distribution und Apartheit 195 6.3 Überbevölkerung 209 6.4 Gerontokratie 219 6.5 Stagnation 228 7. Vision und Warnung 237 8. Popularisierung und Medien 248 8.1 Trost und Trotz im Bild 252 8.2 Vision und Warnung im Bild 263 8.3 Transfer in weitere Erzählräume – Anime, Graphic Novel, Kinderbuch, Gaming 281 9. Fazit 296 10. Quellen- und Literaturverzeichnis 307 10.1 Erzählungen 307 10.1.1 Literatur 307 10.1.2 Audiovisuelles 312 10.2 Forschung und Forschungsquellen 316 10.2.1 Kulturwissenschaft 316 10.2.2 Philosophie 334 10.2.3 Life-Science 342

Thesis (Ph.D)--Murdoch University, 2007. / Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Education. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-287).

This diploma thesis examines a phenomenon of the contemporary Finnish fantastic literature that seems to conquer the Finnish book market, also crossing the boarders and coming to the Czechia as well - Finnish Weird, or suomikumma. The aim of this work is to determine the reception of the Finnish Weird within the audience of the Czech readers. The theoretical part focuses on the fantastic literature and the position of Finnish Weird in it. The reader-response theory and the term horizon of expectations coined by Hans Robert Jauss provide the interpretation of how readers perceive the fantastic literature and what they expect from it. Works of the Finnish Weird fiction translated in Czech and responses of Czech readers are presented in the main part of the thesis. The research material is based on comments and reviews of the Czech readers published predominantly on the internet and on the internet book databases. Key words: contemporary Finnish literature, reader-response theory, horizon of expectation, genre, science fiction, fantasy, horor, speculative fiction, Weird, New Weird, Finnish Weird

Speculative fiction allows an expanded view of literature and so allows scholars to explore new boundaries in the way words and ideas work. In the titular character of The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, the reader sees an expansion of self through liminality while A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick explores its collapse. In order to portray each of these the character examined must move though one seems to move upward and the other downward. This idea of movement is only part of what expands the idea of liminality past the traditional idea of a doorway to create a hallway that the character might traverse on the way from place to place. This is not a redefinition of the term but a revision, a change in the way that we look at the concept as we accept and explore newer genres.