Alien Imaginations

As both an extra-terrestrial and a terrestrial migrant, the alien provides a critical framework to help us understand the interactions between cultures and to explore the transgressive force of travel over geographical, cultural or linguistic borders. Offering a perspective on the alien that connects to scholarship on immigration and globalization, Alien Imaginations brings together canonical and contemporary works in the literature and cinema of science fiction and transnationalism. By examining the role of the alien through the themes of language, anxiety and identity, the essays in this collection engage with authors such as H.G. Wells, Eleanor Arnason, Philip K. Dick and Yoko Tawada as well as directors such as Neill Blomkamp, James Cameron and Michael Winterbottom. Focusing on works that are European and North American in origin, the readings in this volume explore their critical intent and their potential to undermine many of the central notions of Western hegemonic discourses. Alien Imaginations reflects upon contemporary cultural imaginaries as well as the realities of migration, labor and life, suggesting models of resistance, if not utopian horizons.

Ulrike Küchler is a PhD Candidate at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Her teaching and research focus on art and artificial life in science fiction and on the relation between aesthetics and new media.

Silja Maehl is a PhD Candidate in the Department of German Studies, Brown University, USA. Her research focuses on bilingual writing, transnationalism, and translation in contemporary literature.

Graeme A. Stout is Senior Lecturer and Film Studies Coordinator at the University of Minnesota, USA. His teaching and research focus on the nature, deployment and transformation of power in the modern age and the relationship of aesthetic form to social consciousness.

Graeme A. Stout is Senior Lecturer and Film Studies Coordinator at the University of Minnesota, USA. His teaching and research focus on the nature, deployment and transformation of power in the modern age and the relationship of aesthetic form to social consciousness.