THE CONCEPT OF CHANGE IN SCIENCE FICTION THEORY AND DISCOURSE

The argument and the objective presented in this paper is that change is a key concept and a basis for the ideology of change in the unique genre of science fiction, and as such is reflected not only in science fiction theory but also in science fiction discourse (one of the peculiarities of the genre is that many basic theoretical approaches and concepts are directly reflected in literary works). Different science fiction theoretical and practical data have been selected for the analysis and change has been discussed as a case to lend plausibility to the mentioned argument and to conclude that the concept of change is not only a key notion in science fiction ideology but also a primary functional tool through which the basic cognitive strategies of the genre – scientific, technological, social, psychological and many other changes are realized. As the variations of the concept of change in science fiction are numerous, only three forms of change have been focused on: Psychological change, positive/progressive technological change and negative/regressive technological change. Analyzing science fiction theory and discourse thus not only gives access to mental (rational and emotional) models which shape the understanding of the concept of change, but also to other models provided by language to express scientific-technological and individual/inner modifications of our information age.