Intra-active: The Child/Animal in Children’s SF

Authors

  • Naarah Sawers

Keywords:

science fiction, children, animals, human-ness

Abstract

In 1979 Ruth Hubbard asserted that 'science is the most respected legitimator of new realities' (Hubbard et al 1979, p.8-9). Science, however, is quite clearly political, particularly the speed, competition, capital and power which underpins it's overarching cultural influence in constructing 'reality', importantly the 'reality' of being human. Science's authority over 'human-ness' is evidenced in contemporary legislation regarding, for example, stem cell research and current Australian parliamentary debates (requiring a 'conscience vote'), which points to the complex ethical and cultural issues that are inherent in the production of new scientific realities. A concurrent institutional and epistemological distinction between the humanities and the sciences renders dialogue between the two problematic, such a dialogue however is critical when, as Bruno Latour notes, somehow, science has 'take[n] all the important decisions' (Latour, cited in Flower 2003, p.104). While this schism remains, it hinders a responsible and accountable public and interdisciplinary engagement with scientific practices. The question that children's literature scholars might ask, and one that I attend to in this paper, concerns a function of children's literature; how does children's SF reflect and mediate these new realities?

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Published

2021-06-13

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Section

Articles

How to Cite

“Intra-active: The Child/Animal in Children’s SF” (2021) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 16(2), pp. 23–28. Available at: https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/pecl/article/view/1210 (Accessed: 9 December 2024).

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