3/17/2023 0 Comments National geographic mind meld![]() The series consistently articulated anticom- munist “establishment” or “Cold War” liberalism, while simultaneously featuring the equally strong, yet contradictory, message of the pacifist anti-militarism rem- iniscent of the counterculture and New Left. Star Trek was more conflicted and less confident about the issues of Vietnam and the Cold War. As a result, Star Trek’s racial politics unintentionally reflected the limitations of the integra- tionist framework. Yet by the late 1960s, the rise of Black Power and the growing white working-class backlash against the civil rights movement had raised questions that liberal color-blindness could not answer. With regard to the first, Star Trek took a strong and unambiguous stance in favor of what one might call liberal color-blindness. This point is exemplified by considering Star Trek’s treatment of the two most significant issues of the era: the African-American civil rights movement and the ongoing crisis of the Cold War. Its statements, however, reveal not only the highest aspirations of the period’s liberal project, but also the limitations and unresolved tensions of that approach. These stories push beyond individual and anthropocentric attitudes toward life on earth, and although such stories will not likely be the immediate cause of change in this era of precarity, stories can prime us for thinking in non-imperial ways.Īmong television programs of the late 1960s Star Trek was somewhat anomalous in tackling philosophical and political themes, and in doing so in a consistently liberal voice. World making provides opportunity for endless possibilities, and science fiction television has the potential to aid in bringing non-imperial worlds to life. As my analysis will demonstrate, Voyager is unable to provide new worlds free of imperial ideas, but the possibility exists through the loss of their entire world, and their need to constantly make and remake their world(s). In order to move away from this intertwined thread of past/present/future imperialism, in my final chapter I propose alternatives for ecofeminist-inspired narrative approaches that offer possibilities for non-imperial futures. ![]() Through the recreation of these ideologies of empire, Voyager normalizes, legitimizes, and universalizes imperial approaches to engagement with other lifeforms. ![]() Each of these narrative features, as presented, rely on Western difference and superiority that were fundamental to past and present Euro-American imperial encounters and endeavors. ![]() In chapters 2 through 5, I explore how the series highlights American exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny, a belief in endless linear progress, and the creation of a safe ‘home’ space amidst the ‘wild’ spaces of the Delta Quadrant. Voyager follows the Star Trek tradition of exploring the far reaches of space to advance human knowledge, and in doing so writes Western imperial practices of difference into an idealized future. Taking inspiration from postcolonial theorist Edward Said and theories of cultural studies and empire, I use interdisciplinary methods of narrative analysis to examine threads of imperial ideologies that are (re)told and glorified in popular American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001). ![]() This restriction severely hinders possible responses to the present environmental crisis of the era often called the ‘Anthropocene’ through constant creation and recreation of imperial power relations and the presumed superiority of Western approaches to living. In this dissertation, I argue that contemporary cultural narratives are infused with on- going ideologies of Euro-American imperialism that prioritizes Western bodies and ways of engaging with living and nonliving beings. ![]()
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