Miller Gavin, McFarlane Anna
Medical Humanities Research Centre, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Med Humanit. 2016 Dec;42(4):213-218. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2016-011144.
Research on science fiction within the medical humanities should articulate interpretative frameworks that do justice to medical themes within the genre. This means challenging modes of reading that encourage unduly narrow accounts of science fiction. Admittedly, science studies has moved away from reading science fiction as a variety of scientific popularisation and instead understands science fiction as an intervention in the technoscientific imaginary that calls for investment in particular scientific enterprises, including various biomedical technologies. However, this mode of reading neglects science fiction's critical relationship to the construction of 'the future' in the present: the ways in which science fiction proposes concrete alternatives to hegemonic narratives of medical progress and fosters critical self-awareness of the contingent activity which gives 'the future' substance in the here-and-now. Moreover, the future orientation of science fiction should not distract from the function of medical science fiction as 'cognitive estrangement': the technological innovations that dominate science-fiction narratives are less concrete predictions and more generic devices that explain in historical time the origins of a marvellous world bearing provocative correspondences to our own, everyday reality. The editorial concludes with a series of introductions to the articles comprising the special issue, covering the print edition and a special online-only section.
医学人文领域内对科幻小说的研究应阐明能够公正对待该体裁中医学主题的阐释框架。这意味着要挑战那些鼓励对科幻小说进行过度狭隘解读的阅读模式。诚然，科学研究已不再将科幻小说视为一种科学普及形式，而是将其理解为对技术科学想象的一种干预，这种干预呼吁对包括各种生物医学技术在内的特定科学事业进行投入。然而，这种阅读模式忽视了科幻小说与当下“未来”构建的批判性关系：科幻小说提出具体替代方案以对抗医学进步霸权叙事的方式，以及它如何培养对当下赋予“未来”实质内容的偶然活动的批判性自我意识。此外，科幻小说的未来导向不应掩盖医学科幻小说作为“认知陌生化”的功能：主导科幻小说叙事的技术创新并非具体预测，而是更具一般性的手段，用于在历史时间中解释一个奇妙世界的起源，这个世界与我们自己的日常现实有着引人深思的对应关系。编辑以对构成该特刊的文章的一系列介绍作为结语，涵盖印刷版和一个仅在线发布的特别板块。
