Science Fiction in the Spanish University: The Boundaries that Need to Be Broken

• Main Author: Sara Martín
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of South Florida 2016-09-01
• Series: Alambique
• Subjects: science-fiction; Spain; teaching; research; university
• Online Access: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/alambique/vol4/iss1/2

The aim of this article is to trace what Rosi Braidotti calls an ‘accurate cartography’ as regards the limited space that science-fiction occupies in the Spanish university. SF has not yet overcome in Spain what Brian Baker has called its ‘crisis of legitimation’. Teaching this genre and doing research on it is, hence, still conditioned within our national borders by boundaries broken in the Anglo-American university many decades ago. Here I examine these boundaries, paying special attention to the institutional limitations preventing scholars from introducing innovations in teaching and research. Another main barrier, as I argue here, is the lack of scholarly communication among specialists working in different language areas, both nationally within Spain and internationally. Without the necessary collective effort to promote the work of local Spanish sf authors and the inclusion in university of sf courses in a variety of languages, this genre cannot break the boundaries limiting its growth in Spain.