Recognizing the alien: Science fiction storyworlds and the reader’s reality

This project is a critical study of the science fiction storyworld as the platform for the genre to contribute meaningfully to the literary canon. In the process of world-building, the author weaves a fabric of world elements in the categories of nominal, natural, cultural, and ontological. Through the crafting of an alien, secondary world, the author creates binary parallels between the reader’s reality and the fictional world. The reader is encouraged to engage with the text by filling the gap between worlds, and thus critically think about their own status quo. The secondary world is formed using departures from the current reality and these departures juxtapose the unfamiliar elements with the familiarities that go unchecked because of their ubiquitous nature. The science fiction storyworld disembodies social issues from their human categories and allows the reader to reconsider perspectives while distanced from the self. Received Honourable Mention for the 2021 Mount Royal University Library Awards for Research Excellence in the Senior Individual Award Category.