Settler Colonialism and Science Fiction: Imagining the Worlds Turned Inside Out

Abstract:When it comes to imagining new worlds, there is no better new world than a literally brand new one. Mars is the closest option, and humans recently directed a few sophisticated objects toward it. Billionaire Elon Musk is planning to turn it into a colony. Science fiction has imagined Mars and many other new worlds and has routinely reflected on real or impending contradictions developing on Earth. The contradictions are, in a sense, where the new worlds are imagined from, but the new worlds are often imagined as settler colonies located somewhere else. This article sketches the long-term evolution of science fiction colonialism. It surveys the ways in which science fiction has engaged with settler colonialism as a specific mode of domination.