Dr Paul March-Russell from the Department of Comparative Literature will be giving a keynote speech at a science fiction symposium organised by the School of Anthropology. The event entitled ‘Strangers in Strange Lands: Mapping the Relationship between Anthropology and Science Fiction’ will be held on the 15-16 November 2014, with sponsorship from The Science Fiction Foundation (UK).
Paul’s talk is entitled ‘Strangers to Ourselves: J G Ballard’s Rogue Anthropology’ and will take place on Saturday 15 November. Increasing attention is now being paid to the late J G Ballard’s colonial upbringing and fraught relationship to England and the English. This talk will approach the debate by recasting Ballard as a rogue anthropologist, following his motif of the hoodlum scientist in such texts as The Atrocity Exhibition (Jonathan Cape, 1970) and Crash (Jonathan Cape, 1973). The talk will argue that Ballard carried over anthropological strategies into his analysis of science, technology and psychology while also distancing himself from media-friendly popularisers such as anthropologist and broadcaster Desmond Morris. Anthropology is one of the means via which Ballard reworked modernism and science fiction into a counter-cultural critique.
To reserve a place at this event visit booking page:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/strangers-in-strange-lands-tickets-13244780495