Decolonizing the Novum

About this episode

Zac Zimmer discusses the concept of decolonizing the novum in science fiction narratives related to colonization and first contact.

In this episode of High Theory, Zac Zimmer talks to Kim about Decolonizing the Novum. The novum is a concept developed by Darko Suvin that names the new element of a science fiction or speculative fiction narrative. SF narratives from the Americas that rewrite archival material about colonization and first contact have begun an imaginative project of decolonizing that novum. In Zac’s words, the "novum" has been part of our definition of science fiction since Darko Suvin first offered up the concept of part of his critical assessment of SF. This idea of "novelty" is linked to conquest and colonialism through the figure of the New World, i.e. the post-1492 Americas. Thus untangling the relationship between colonialism, novelty, and science fiction must pass through the historical record of the conquest. One way to do this is to focus on SF that deeply engages the archival record of the XVIth century in the Americas: texts and artworks that use speculation to depart from the knowledge that things didn't quite occur the way the dominant paradigms would lead us to believe, and to imagine other futures linked to past moments of historical contingency. In the episode, Zac references an…

People in this episode

Host: Kim

Guest: Zac Zimmer

Topics covered

• decolonization
• science fiction
• colonialism
• archival material
• speculative fiction
• historical record

Keywords

• novum
• science fiction
• colonization
• historical contingency
• speculation
• XVIth century
• archival record

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Venus in Two Acts, You Dreamed of Empires, Destrucción de todas las cosas, Decolonization is not a metaphor

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