Monsters, Martians and Machines: The Evolution of “The Other” Through the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century British Science Fiction

Abstract

Science fiction has long been a fertile ground for reimagining what it means to be human by exploring what it means to be not human. In particular, British science fiction of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries has served as a powerful narrative laboratory for representing and interrogating the concept of “the Other.” Across the span of approximately one hundred and fifty years, the figure of the Other in science fiction transforms—from bodily grotesquerie to imperial threats, and finally to disembodied yet intelligent systems. Through detailed analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus (1818), H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1898), and Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), this study traces a progression from the bodily Other to the colonial Other, and finally to the posthuman Other. Each novel reflects its historical moment: Shelley’s creature embodies fears of scientific transgression and physical monstrosity; Wells’s Martians mirror imperialist ideologies and fears of reverse colonisation; and Clarke’s HAL 9000 personifies anxieties about artificial intelligence and the loss of human agency. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from monster theory, colonial studies, and posthumanism, the thesis demonstrates how the genre of science fiction participates in redefining the boundaries of the human by reimagining the figure of the Other across time. Ultimately, this study argues that British science fiction offers a unique lens through which to understand the shifting cultural constructions of otherness in modernity.