After Humanity: Science Fiction after Extinction in Kurt Vonnegut and Clifford D. Simak

Authors

Gerry Canavan, Marquette UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Publication Date

2016

Publisher

Delta Productions

Source Publication

Paradoxa

Source ISSN

1079-8072

Abstract

This article takes up the question of whether and to what extent humanistic values can survive confrontation with the "deep time" of the Anthropocene, specifically with the inevitability of human extinction. In particular, I focus on representations of human extinction and the emergence of sapient successor species in H.G. Wells's The Time Machine (1895). Kurt Vonnegut's Galápagos (1985). and Clifford D. Simak's City (1952), identifying in the latter two submerged humanisms that belie the surface anti-humanism and cosmic pessimism of the novels .

Comments

Published version. Paradoxa, Vol. 28 (2016): 135-156. Publisher link. © 2016 Delta Productions. Used with permission.

Recommended Citation

Canavan, Gerry, "After Humanity: Science Fiction after Extinction in Kurt Vonnegut and Clifford D. Simak" (2016). English Faculty Research and Publications. 395.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_fac/395