Reactionary Worldbuilding - by Anindita Banerjee & Sherryl Vint & David M Higgins & Jordan Carroll (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Speculative imagination brings to life an array of possible worlds that differ in crucial ways from the one governed by shared assumptions of the "normal," "real," or "inevitable." This act of speculation--known as worldbuilding--has become undeniably resurgent in our times of multiple crises. Worldbuilding has long been associated with progressivist impulses, yet this book examines how worldbuilding has also been conducive to a diametrically opposite set of ideologies and politics, including apocalyptic re-enactments, alternative histories, and conspiracy theories. Reactionary Worldbuilding, edited by Anindita Banerjee, Sherryl Vint, David Higgins, and Jordan Carroll, analyzes how interrogating these reactionary modes can open up new ways of imagining value and belonging, justice and what is natural, history and its lessons, and the future and pathways to it.

Combining theoretical and analytical perspectives with site-specific knowledge of various periods and regions around the world, from interwar Germany to Soviet Central Asia, post-independence India to contemporary South Korea, this volume traces the durable and persuasive appeal of reactionary worldbuilding far beyond the boundaries of the current moment.

The speculative arts of reactionary worldbuilding cannot be dismissed as mere excesses of extremist fantasy; instead, this collection demonstrates that they can serve as crucial foundations for making sense of the self and the world and shows why it is urgent that we critique their power.

About the Author

Sherryl Vint is Distinguished Professor of Media and Cultural Studies and English at the University of California, Riverside, where she founded the Speculative Fictions and Cultures of Science program. She is the Managing Editor of Science Fiction Studies and has published widely on science fiction, including Biopolitical Futures and Programming the Future.

David M. Higgins is Associate Professor of English and American Studies and Chair of the Department of Humanities and Communication at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Worldwide. He is the author of Reverse Colonization, which won the 2021 Science Fiction Research Association Book Award.

Jordan S. Carroll is the author of Speculative Whiteness and Reading the Obscene, which won the 2020-2021 MLA Prize for Independent Scholars.