Kelso, Sylvia (1997) "Across Never": postmodern theory and narrative praxis in Samuel R. Delany's 'Nevérÿon cycle. Science Fiction Studies, 24 (2). pp. 289-301.

PDF (Published Version) - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only

Abstract

Since the 1960s Samuel Delany's work has frequently been at the speculative edge of "soft" science fiction, feminism and post-humanist thought. Its equally ongoing concern with mythology moves from '60s resistance of white patriarchal heterosexual myths to their denial, deconstruction, and, with Dhalgren, demolition of myths and their generating system together. In the Neveryon cycle postmodern theory informs the construction of a new (form of) mythology. Derridean theory supplies the "Symbolic Order" of the cycle's blurred margins and centreless structure, while Foucault's use of S/M experience is paralleled in the series' "homoerotic Imaginary." Its eroticizing and mythicizing fantasies transgress generic and cultural boundaries in a manner characteristic of Delany's earlier sf, but here they also demonstrate the crucial interventions of postmodern theory in a work about Foucauldian "limit-experiences" that becomes a "limit-experience" in itself.

Item ID:	37331
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2327-6207
Date Deposited:	02 Feb 2017 03:56
FoR Codes:	20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2005 Literary Studies > 200506 North American Literature @ 100%
SEO Codes:	95 CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING > 9502 Communication > 950203 Languages and Literature @ 100%
Downloads:	Total: 2
	More Statistics