On Xenophobia in science fiction

Abstract

The article deals with how the notion of xenophobia is re-iterated in contemporary science fiction. First, the author provides a brief analysis of xenophobia as a cognitive phenomenon that is, on the one hand, built into the mass culture as an archetypal attitude and, on the other hand, symbolically disguised following the two prototypic scenarios-those of alienation and of appropriation. One of the central arguments of the article is that the quintessential sci-fi “alien” is based on the reinvented image of a Jew in the Western culture, while the narrative of “androids” draws on the historical and emotional experience of black slavery.

Keywords

• xenophobia
• science fiction
• post-structuralism
• post-humanism
• mass culture
• cultural criticism
• otherness
• alienation
• antisemitism
• slavery.