cognitive estrangement
English
Etymology
Coined by Yugoslav-born academic, writer and critic Darko Suvin in his 1979 book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction.
Noun
cognitive estrangement (uncountable)
- (literature, narratology) A narrative logic, characteristic of science fiction, whereby devices used in the story are lent plausibility by their being placed in the context of the fictional universe, which is imagined to be scientifically consistent.
- 2003, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., 7: Marxist theory and science fiction, Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn (editors), The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, Cambridge University Press, page 118,
- In his book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (1979), Suvin introduced a number of ideas that remain central in sf criticism: cognitive estrangement, the novum and sf's genetic link with utopia. In the notion of cognitive estrangement, Suvin conflate two distict, but related, ideas of estrangement from earlier literary theory: ostranenie (de-familiarization) from the Russian Formalists, and Berthold Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt (alienation effect). […] Even more influential in sf theory than cognitive estrangement is Suvin's concept of the novum.
- 2005, Jan Johnson-Smith, American Science Fiction TV: Star Trek, Stargate and Beyond, I.B. Tauris, page 26,
- Cognitive estrangement can therefore be seen as defining the textual effects of such work: the text faxes its audience with something that will not fit into the existing patterns of verisimilitude, yet is being asserted and explored as fact.
- 2011, Roger Luckhurst, 1: In the Zone: Topologies of Genre Weirdness, Sara Wasson, Emily Alder (editors), Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010, Liverpool University Press, page 21,
- Darko Suvin, the eminent theorist of science fiction, defined science fiction as a literature of cognitive estrangement, a genre in which the reader enters an imaginative world different or estranged from his or her empirical world, but different in a way that obeys rational causation or scientific law: thus, it is estranged cognitively.
- 2003, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., 7: Marxist theory and science fiction, Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn (editors), The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, Cambridge University Press, page 118,
Translations
narrative logic characteristic of science fiction
See also
Further reading
Darko Suvin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Novum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia