Reading Philippine science fiction through science and technology studies: the space race and authoritarian modernity in Gregorio Brillantes’s “The Apollo Centennial”

Chua, Ethan and Chua, Scott Lee (2023) Reading Philippine science fiction through science and technology studies: the space race and authoritarian modernity in Gregorio Brillantes’s “The Apollo Centennial”. Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints, 71 (1). 93 - 105. ISSN 2244-1093

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Abstract

We propose that analyses of Philippine science fiction can meaningfully contribute to the growing intersections between Philippine studies and science and technology studies. We argue that science fiction is not only a literary genre but also a mode of inquiry into our notions of progress and modernity. Through this lens, we examine Gregorio Brillantes’s short story “The Apollo Centennial.” Set in a future where the Ferdinand E. Marcos regime never ended, “The Apollo Centennial” demonstrates how state infrastructural interventions can discipline Filipino subjects according to the dictates of an authoritarian techno-future. Nevertheless, the short story also gestures to the emancipatory potential of alternative linguistic and sensory modes through which state subjects might imagine other futures that defy narrative sequestration.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://ajol.ateneo.edu/pshev
Additional Information:	© 2023 Ateneo de Manila University.
Divisions:	LSE
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) J Political Science > JC Political theory
Date Deposited:	24 May 2024 14:48
Last Modified:	28 Sep 2024 20:00
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/123641

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