Science Fiction From Quebec

This first book-length study of French-language science fiction from Canada provides an introduction to the subgenre known as "SFQ" (science fiction from Quebec). In addition, it offers in-depth analyses of SFQ sagas by Jacques Brossard, Esther Rochon, and Elisabeth Vonarburg. It demonstrates how these multivolume narratives of colonization and postcolonial societies exploit themes typical of postcolonial literatures, including the denunciation of oppressive colonial systems, the utopian hope for a better future, and the celebration of tolerant pluralistic societies. A bibliography of SFQ available in English translation is included.

Grade level: 10, 11, 12, i, s, t.

Canadian Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror: Bridging the Solitudes exposes the limitations of the solitudes concept so often applied uncritically to the Canadian experience. This volume examines Canadian and Québécois literature of the fantastic across its genres—such as science fiction, fantasy, horror, indigenous futurism, and others—and considers how its interrogation of colonialism, nationalism, race, and gender works to bridge multiple solitudes. Utilizing a transnational lens, this volume reveals how the fantastic is ready-made for exploring, in non-literal terms, the complex and problematic nature of intercultural engagement.

Witnessing strange and unexplainable changes in her once-familiar Montreal home, Catherine Rhymer fears for her sanity until the arrest of two students puts her on the trail of a secret revolutionary movement. Now Catherine must embark on a voyage of discovery, travelling north in search of the truth about her world. She will journey through hail and snow and herds of grazing beasts to a confrontation with the originators of her reality. Enter a new world on the edge of sanity from Elisabeth Vonarburg, the Grand Dame of Canadian SF.

Essays about the inherently collaborative nature of science fiction As a geometric term, parabola suggests a narrative trajectory or story arc. In science fiction, parabolas take us from the known to the unknown. More concrete than themes, more complex than motifs, parabolas are combinations of meaningful setting, character, and action that lend themselves to endless redefinition and jazzlike improvisation. The fourteen original essays in this collection explore how the field of science fiction has developed as a complex of repetitions, influences, arguments, and broad conversations. This particular feature of the genre has been the source of much critical commentary, most notably through growing interest in the "sf megatext," a continually expanding archive of shared images, situations, plots, characters, settings, and themes found in science fiction across media. Contributors include Jane Donawerth, Terry Dowling, L. Timmel Duchamp, Rachel Haywood Ferreira, Pawel Frelik, David M. Higgins, Amy J. Ransom, John Rieder, Nicholas Ruddick, Graham Sleight, Gary K. Wolfe, and Lisa Yaszek.

Bien que la science-fiction compte deux siècles d'existence et que ses concepts, traduits en images percutantes, s'épanouissent sur nos écrans depuis des décennies, peu de gens connaissent la véritable genèse de ce genre littéraire... et encore moins son évolution au Québec. C'est cette lacune que vient combler le Petit Guide de la science-fiction au Québec. En sept chapitres abondamment illustrés, Jean-Louis Trudel retrace le chemin parcouru par la science-fiction au Québec depuis sa naissance au XIXe siècle. De Jules Verne en passant par les anticipations politiques du début du XXe siècle, de son émergence difficile dans le Québec en profonde mutation des années cinquante à sa renaissance dans les années soixante-dix, l'histoire que nous raconte Trudel dans une langue simple et concise est parsemée d'auteurs inspirés et d'oeuvres marquantes. Et, bien sûr, il est aussi question dans ce Petit Guide de la mise en place des structures institutionnelles qui, au fil des années, ont soutenu le genre et lui ont permis de connaître le foisonnement de ce début de nouveau millénaire. Bref, le Petit Guide de la science-fiction au Québec, c'est une belle plongée au coeur d'une histoire passionnante et jusqu'à présent méconnue, celle de la SFQ !