A History of the Future: Time-Travel, Technology, Dystopia, and Postcolonial Anxiety in Vandana Singh’s “Delhi”

A History of the Future: Time-Travel, Technology, Dystopia, and Postcolonial Anxiety in Vandana Singh’s “Delhi”

Indian science fiction

Postcolonialism

Delhi

Time-travel

Technology

Dystopia

Appropriation

The paper examines postcolonial concerns arising in and through the science fiction, “Delhi,” by Vandana Singh as the author consciously deviates from generic conventions of the structures of Western science fiction. We argue that the protagonist in “Delhi” could be viewed as a postcolonial subject experiencing alienation and powerlessness. The character‟s postcolonial subjectivity is traced through Singh‟s manipulations of western science fiction tropes vis-à-vis time-travel, technology, dystopia, and narrative techniques. Using „abrogation‟ and „appropriation‟ (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin, 1989), and Ricoeur‟s Time and Narrative (1988), the paper analyses how postcolonial elements are foregrounded. It also examines the larger implications of engaging in a postcolonial reading of a science fiction text produced from a technologically developing Indian context.

Vinod, Meera

Jayadevan, Gaana

Artha Journal of Social Sciences; Vol. 17 No. 3 (2018): Artha Journal of Social Sciences; 73-97

0000-0000

0975-329X

Centre for Publications, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore

2018-07-01

Copyright (c) 2019 Artha - Journal of Social Sciences

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0

application/pdf

eng

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Peer-reviewed Article

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