To Örebro University

När kvinnor på 1800-talet fick tillträde till medicinska utbildningar i USA var det många som firade - och förfasades över - utvecklingen. Men det skulle visa sig att möjligheten att ta läkarexamen inte var en slutgiltig seger utan snarare början på en lång kamp.

In an era in which accusations of “colonialism” are increasingly thrown around in political debate, it becomes necessary to define exactly what is meant by “colony.” As this article demonstrates, the heterogeneity and complexity of historical examples make it unexpectedly difficult to pin down exactly what this central term means and which historical territories should be described as “colonies.” The article considers three approaches to defining this key term: analytical, comparative, and historicist. While each has strengths and weaknesses, a case is made for greater historicist research in the future, as this approach is far less developed than the others.

This open access book demonstrates that despite different epistemological starting points, history and speculative fiction perform similar work in “making the strange familiar” and “making the familiar strange” by taking their readers on journeys through space and time. Excellent history, like excellent speculative fiction, should cause readers to reconsider crucial aspects of their society that they normally overlook or lead them to reflect on radically different forms of social organization. Drawing on Gunlög Fur’s postcolonial concept of concurrences, and with contributions that explore diverse examples of speculative fiction and historical encounters using a variety of disciplinary approaches, this volume provides new perspectives on colonialism, ecological destruction, the nature of humanity, and how to envision a better future.

This introductory chapter makes the case that despite different epistemological starting points, history and speculative fiction are both arguably “literatures of cognitive estrangement.” Both can help expose invisible problematic aspects of their authors’ and readers’ societies and suggest possible solutions or futures. Summarizing relevant existing literature and theoretical perspectives, the chapter suggests the usefulness of the postcolonial concept of concurrences for both modes and different possible ways to define the two. It also investigates the relationship that history and speculative fiction have to colonial ideology and ecocriticism, as well as presenting the structure of the book.