The Colonial Gaze and its Representation in Science Fiction

The Colonial Gaze and its Representation in Science Fiction

The Colonial Gaze

In the current world order, there is a way in which the colonial enterprise and agenda attempts to sustain the powers that they possess by deciding on the realities that the colonial world are exposed to. Such include even the dehumanization of the colonized people and the continued division between the Other (the colonized) and Us (the colonizers) (Reider, 2008). It is clear how the Western world gains control over and perpetually exploits the human and natural resources by a systematic retrenchment of a dehumanizing tale of the lands of the colonized people. When they do this, they erect illusory barriers between the civilized colonizers and the savage colonized—the Other. This is what is called the colonial gaze.

Reproduction and Disruption by Science Fiction

Science fiction has over the years has borne a striking motif of the ideological realities of colonialism. It has represented, in equal measure, the invasion of the planet earth by Other-worldly bodies, the challenges that come about when man has extreme ambition for exploration and control of other people and the environmental consequence of such invasions. Because science fiction primarily relies on the ways in which cultures interact, the disruption it has caused on the colonial gaze depends on the response of the people to the invasions and the consequences of such responses (Attebery, 2005).

The colonial gaze is sustained by the direct military control of lands, people and resources. This then creates a binary world in which there are the colonizers and the colonized. In Avatar, this element of colonialism is represented. Selfridge does not engage with the Na’vi, but sends Quaritch and SecOp forces. The Na’vi cannot save themselves; they need Jake to attack the colonial forces on Pandora (Cameron, 2009). At the end of the movie, the remnants of colonialism still persist. In District 9, the fate of settler colonialism is explored. By showing the increasing tensions between the aliens and humans who host them, the movie classically reflects the tensions that usually develop when the settler colonialists attempt to overstay their welcome (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (Firm), 2009).

References

Attebery, B. (2005). Aboriginality in Science Fiction. Science Fiction Studies, 32(3), 385–404. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4241374

Cameron, J. (2009). Avatar. Twentieth Century Fox.

Reider, J. (2008). Colonialism and the emergence of science fiction. Wesleyan University Press.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (Firm). (2009). District 9. Culver City, Calif: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.