Science Fiction from Latin America: The (Re)invention of a Genre

Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 10-11 September 2015 

• Call for Papers (closed)
• Convocatoria (cerrada)
• Registration (closed)
• Programme​
• Symposium Report

Although Latin American science fiction has often registered the influence of U.S. and European models, it is far from an imported genre. Rachel Haywood Ferreira’s pioneering work on early SF in Latin America (The Emergence of Latin American Science Fiction, 2011) uncovers a wealth of examples prior to 1920 across many countries, even stretching back to eighteenth-century precursors. Over the last century, Latin American SF has often engaged critically with the dominant modes of the genre, challenging science fiction’s associations with colonial discourse or the North American technological imaginary, and reworking its narrative topoi and stylistic hallmarks from a distinctively postcolonial and Latin American perspective.

This symposium will explore Latin American contributions to the global SF genre, seeking to expand and challenge existing views of its origins and evolution. Invited speakers will include:

- Alex Rivera, director of the award-winning Sleep Dealer (US/Mexico, 2008)

- Pedro Cabiya, the acclaimed Puerto Rican novelist, poet, dramatist, and scriptwriter of graphic novels, currently Director of the Centro de Lenguas y Culturas Modernas de la Universidad Iberoamericana (Santo Domingo)

- Rafael Acevedo (University of Puerto Rico), Professor of Hispanic Literature and author of the prize-winning Exquisito cadáver (2001), among other novels

- J. Andrew Brown (Washington University), author of Test Tube Envy: Science and Power in Argentine Narrative (2005) and Cyborgs in Latin America (2010), and co-editor of Latin American Science Fiction: Theory and Practice (2012)

- Joanna Page (University of Cambridge), author of Creativity and Science in Contemporary Argentine Literature: Between Romanticism and Formalism (2014) and Technologies of the Text in a Material Multiverse: Science Fiction from Argentina (forthcoming)

- Rachel Haywood Ferreira (Iowa State University), author of The Emergence of Latin American Science Fiction (2011)

- Soledad Quereilhac (CONICET/University of Buenos Aires), author of the forthcoming La imaginación científica. Ciencias ocultas y literatura fantástica en el Buenos Aires de entresiglos (1875-1910)

- Ed King (University of Bristol), author of Science Fiction and Digital Technologies in Argentine and Brazilian Culture (2013)

- Emily Maguire (Northwestern University), who has published on Caribbean science fiction and cyberpunk

 

Registration

Delegate fee: £75

The registration fee has been set at £75, and this includes coffees and lunches on both days of the conference, as well as a reception on the first evening (including food) and the conference dinner on the second evening.

Resident Day-Rate: £25

The above daily registration fee is available to residents of Puerto Rico, and will include lunch and refreshments on the chosen day, but will not include the conference dinner on the second evening.

 

For all questions and enquiries related to registration, please contact the Research Network Coordinator, Geoff Maguire (gwm23@cam.ac.uk)