Science Fiction and the Challenge of Genre
Technological Metaphor, Utopian Structure, and the Limits of Ricœur’s Hermeneutics of Fiction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/errs.2025.705Keywords:
Narrative Theory, Science Fiction, Utopia, Technological Metaphor, GenreAbstract
This article argues that Science Fiction, as a genre structured by technological metaphor and utopian displacement, exposes key limitations in Paul Ricœur’s hermeneutics of narrative fiction. While Ricœur famously insists on a genre-agnostic theory of narrative configuration, his own interpretive practice privileges works with genre-specific formal challenges—particularly “tales about time.” Drawing on Ricœur’s theories of utopia, productive imagination, and the mimetic arc, I propose that Science Fiction serves as a paradigmatic genre for understanding how fictional narratives operate as ethical laboratories. The paper unfolds in two parts: first, I construct a Ricœurian theory of Science Fiction by placing his treatment of utopia and ideology in dialogue with theorists such as Suvin and Jameson, arguing that Science Fiction’s cognitive estrangement and futural form demand a genre-sensitive extension of Ricœur’s model. In the second part, I analyze how technological metaphors function as productive frameworks in two exemplary texts. William Gibson’s Neuromancer deploys the metaphor of cyberspace to dramatize the refiguration of subjectivity within digital imaginaries, while Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy reconfigures the narrative of human origin through speculative biotechnology and posthuman kinship. Across these readings, I suggest that Science Fiction not only aligns with Ricœur’s understanding of narrative as a site of ethical redescription, but also compels a revision of his framework by foregrounding genre as a structuring force in the symbolic life of fiction.
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