World systems and world science fiction

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Abstract

World systems theory is an approach to modern economic history developed by Immanuel Wallerstein, the enduring concern of which has been with how modern capitalism functions as a world system, comprising a core, periphery, and senti-periphery. Franco Moretti has sought to apply this theory to Comparative Literature, developing a model of the world literary system as simultaneously one and unequal, with a core and periphery, bound together in relationships of growing inequality. This article argues that Moretti s model can, in turn, be applied to the history of modern sf, where an initial Anglo-French core is later supplemented by new American and Japanese cores, and where Russia, Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia function as semiperipheries.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)15 - 29
Number of pages15
JournalParadoxa: studies in world literary genres
Volume26
Publication statusPublished - 2014

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