Science Fiction and the Sun: The Question of Anthropocentrism in Wells, Tarkovsky and Ishiguro

Abstract

This dissertation broadly considers the place of humankind in nature. However, given the overwhelming scope of this topic, I have narrowed my focus down to an analysis of anthropocentrism: the assumption of human superiority and dominion over all other natural forms. In literature and film, Science-Fiction (SF) is an effective genre to appeal to for this purpose. Despite creating fictional worlds, SF has a great propensity to unveil truths about our own. The three SF storytellers in question – Wells, Tarkovsky and Ishiguro – demonstrate an especially astute awareness of this, as each of their SF works are complex, nuanced artefacts: offering a privileged insight into the zeitgeist of the moment in history in which they were produced. The motif which binds the chosen works together is the sun. In each case, the sun represents an overseeing force, symbolic of nature, which responds to the anthropocentric endeavours of humankind. This relationship lies at the heart of my research question: how the sun can be employed in SF as an organizing principle to renegotiate the question of anthropocentrism. While uncovering the role of the sun, this dissertation will also serve to expose the broader repercussions of anthropocentrism – not only for nature, but for the human condition itself. Despite featuring prominently in SF, the sun’s role as an organizing principle has been largely overlooked by the secondary literature, as all chosen works are yet to be analysed in this context. With each of the works in question, I will carry out a semiotic analysis of how the sun operates as an organizing principle to decentre the human - bringing in the relevant ontological/theoretical frameworks, where necessary, to underpin my argument.