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

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?