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Abstract

Science fiction has been considered to be the kind of non-mainstream literary form since

it was born. Even though there are still some famous critics, such as Harold Bloom, Susan

Sontag, making comments on them, they put more emphasis on structure, narration or social

significance. However, the argument on the morality in science fiction has never been stopped.

With the development of literary critical approach and the modern technology, people have to

focus on the significance from a totally new angle, which combines science, morality and

people’s real life. It is the ethical critical approach.

The concept of ethical literary criticism was raised by Professor Nie Zhenzhao in 2004.

It is a new but effective way to analyze science fiction. In this thesis, this new critical

approach is used to analyze some representative American and British science fictions, and

the following conclusion is got through the analysis: The ending of the novel is up to the

relationships of the ethical ideas of the author’s, the time’s and the protagonist’s. If the

protagonist’s behavior follows these ideas, there will be a happy ending, and if his or her

behavior does not, it will be a tragic one.

The thesis consists of five parts:

Introduction. In this part, the author defines science fiction and literary ethical critical

approach and puts forwards the central argument.

Chapter One. The Conflicts and Tragic Ending.

In this chapter, the author focuses on the argument that if the protagonist’s behavior

doesn’t follow the ethical ideas, there will be a tragic ending. Frankenstein, The Island of Dr.

Moreau, The Invisible Man and The Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are taken as the example

to illustrate the author’s argument.

Chapter Two. The Harmony and Happy Ending.

In this chapter, the author takes Robbie, Runaround, First Law, Slaughterhouse Five and

Foundation series as the examples to illustrate and prove the argument. And summarizes that

if the protagonist’s behavior follows the ethical ideas, there will be a happy ending.

Chapter three focuses on the readers’ acceptance and the creation of science fictions.

Conclusion. In this part, the author sums up the whole thesis and draws a conclusion.

Key Words: Science Fiction, Ethical Literary Criticism, Writers, Readers

ii

摘

要

自从科幻小说诞生之日起，就一直被视为一种非主流文学。虽然如此，仍然有一些

著名学者如哈罗得·布卢姆，苏珊·索太格等关注着这种非主流文学。然而他们关注的

更多的是文章的结构，叙事策略或者是从社会意义对其进行评论。无论怎样，关于科幻

小说中道德话题的争论从来就没有停止过。随着新技术的发展，而随着文学理论的不断

发展、科幻小说与现实科技的不断结合，使得人们不得不从一个全新的角度去考虑科幻

小说的影响。这个角度就是伦理道德的角度。

伦理道德批评是聂珍钊教授于 2004 年提出的一个全新的批评方法。虽然是一种新

的批评方式，但它的意义是深远的。本文将用这种全新的批评方法对一些具有代表性的

科幻小说进行解读，并试图得出如下结论：科幻小说的结尾取决于书中人物、作者及当

时所处时代的伦理关系。如果他们相一致，则小说将会是一个喜剧性的结尾，反之，则

会是悲剧性的结尾。

本文分为五部分：

引言。在这部分中，将界定科幻小说的定义和文学伦理学批评方法。本文论点也将

在此部分提出。

第一章将论述时代、作者及主人公的伦理道德观相悖的情况。

本章中，作者通过《弗兰肯斯坦》、《莫罗博士岛》、《隐形人》和《化身博士》等几

部科幻小说对中心论点中的“时代、作者及作品中主人公的伦理相悖情况下，结尾为悲

剧性”的观点加以论述，并证明所提出的观点。

第二章将论述时代、作者及主人公的伦理道德观相同的情况。

本章中，作者通过对《小机》、《绕圈》、《第一定律》、《五号屠场》及《基地系列》

等几部科幻小说的分析来证明“时代、作者及作品中主人公的伦理相同时，结尾为喜剧

性结尾”的观点。

第三章将论述读者对小说的接受和小说的创作问题。

总结。在这部分将对本文进行总结，得出结论。

关键词： 科幻小说；文学伦理学批评；作者；读者

iii

CONTENTS

Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………i

摘

要

……………………………………………………………………………………ii

Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………1

Chapter One The Conflicts Between the Character’s Ethics and the Ethics of the

Age……………………………………………………………………………………………7

1. The Conflicts in Frankenstein …………………………………………………………7

2. The Conflicts in The Island of Dr. Moreau……………………………………………10

3. The Conflicts in The Invisible Man and Other Science Fictions ……………………12

4. A Brief Summary ……………………………………………………………………14

Chapter Two The Harmony Between the Character’s Ethics and the Ethics of the

Age……………………………………………………………………………………………16

1. The Harmony in Slaughterhouse Five…………………………………………………16

2. The Harmony in Foundation …………………………………………………………19

3. The Harmony in Robbie and Other Science Fictions………………………………… 20

4. A Brief Summary …………………………………………………………………… 23

Chapter Three Ethics: Acceptance of Readers and Creations of Authors………………25

1. Ethics in Science Fictions and Readers’ Acceptance………………………………… 25

2. Ethics and Creation of Authors………………… ……………………………………26

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………29

Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………31

Acknowledgement ………………………………………………………………………34

1

Introduction

To choose science fiction as my research subject is really a tough task: it seems that most

people have a sense of what science fiction is,

1

meanwhile, there is no generally agreed-upon

definition of it.

2

Lance Parkin suggests that “science fiction is a notoriously difficult term to

define, but when it comes down to it, a book appears on the science fiction shelves if the

publisher thinks they will maximize their sales by labeling it as such”.

3

The Oxford English

Dictionary defines science fiction as “imaginative fiction based on postulated scientific

discoveries or spectacular environmental changes, frequently set in the future or on other

planets and involving space or time travel.”

Though all of the many definitions of science fiction offered by critics have been

contradicted or modified by other critics, all agree that it is a genre of literature, and it

contains two major elements: science (scientific technology or scientific knowledge) and

fantasy.

The term “science fiction” did not come common usage until the 1920s.

4

Stories of

this kind were certainly produced before that – for instance, stories written in the late 19

th

century by H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. In fact, some critics claim that the first science fiction

is Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley in 1818. It is a story of a strange new form of life

created by a scientist. Because “the function of science in Frankenstein to a great extent

defines it science fiction ”

5

.

Though the identification of origin for science fiction is as fiercely contested a business

as defining the form, it doesn’t prevent any enthusiasm of reading them from the readers.

Writers of those stories portrayed pictures which people have never imagined before. The

monster (as in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein), the robot (as in Isaac Asimov’s short stories and

The Foundation series), the Martian (as in H. G. Wells’ The War of the World) and so on and

so forth …

No sooner than the publication of Frankenstein, more and more such science fictions

were written and published. And more and more science fiction writers emerged. It is so

amazing that science fiction has been considered a non-mainstream form of literature, yet, a

lot of writers seem like writing those pieces, Such as Edgar Allan Poe (who is a famous

1

Roberts, Adam. Science Fiction London: Routledge 2000, p 1.

2

Asimov, Isaac. Social Science Fiction Science Fiction: The Future Dick Allen (ed). New York: Harcourt Brace

Jovanovich, Inc. 1971, p 263.

3

Parkin, Lance. Letter to Interzone 139(January), 1999, p 4 -5.

4

Roberts, Adam. Science Fiction London: Routledge 2000, p 2.

5

Holt, Terrence. “Teaching Frankenstein as Science Fiction” Approaches to Teaching Shelley’s Frankenstein edited by

Stephen C. Behrendt New York: The Modern Language Association of America 1990, p 112. 2

American writer and poet), Isaac Asimov (who is a popular science writer) and so on.

With the development of the writing techniques used in those stories, science fiction

became more and more popular. Besides, the worlds, people and events described in those

stories were so amazing and they were totally different from the ones readers had got used to.

Readers could get great pleasures in reading these stories. Everything in these stories were so

attractive – monsters created by talented scientists (as in Frankenstein and The Island of Dr.

Moreau), the future world (as in The Time Machine). This kind of stories had something in

common: they were all beyond people’s daily life and their imaginations. “Creating human

beings” and “robot” seemed to be two themes of this kind. For these things, readers have

never heard of, even thought of.

As a new form of genre, science fictions have attracted not only passionate readers but

some critics as well. They have tried to find out the subtle meanings of the stories. They have

tried every means they could use to understand, to analyze the works.

Just as I mentioned above, science fiction was not considered to be the mainstream of

literature, though it was popular among the readers, not too many critics would like to devote

themselves to this.

Even though, there are still some critics who are interested in science fictions and they

wrote articles to make their comments on the science fictions.

Considered to be the first science fiction of the world, Frankenstein got most of the

comments. Both Harold Bloom and Anne K. Mellor, two leading authorities on Mary Shelley

and Frankenstein, state that it (Frankenstein) began with a gothic tradition, and then came

with a new form of genre -- science fiction.

1

Some critics pay their attention not on the forms of it as Harold does, but on the

characters. They think the monster is only the most literal image of a number of monstrous

entities in the novel, including that the knowledge Victor used to create the monster. “One can

argue that Victor himself is a kind of monster, as his ambition, secrecy, and selfishness

alienate him from human society. Ordinary on the outside, he may be the true monster inside,

as he is eventually consumed by an observer hatred of his creation.”

2

For some reason, most critics who undertake to discuss science fiction for a literary but

non-specialized audience give misleading impression of the present state of the genre from a

limited and largely antiquarian knowledge of the field.

3

This might be of little importance in

older genres, but science fiction is based upon modern technology. What they often discuss is

not the literature itself, but the panics that science fiction brings about.

Some critics also work on the structures or narrative strategies. What they are concerned

1

Patnaik, Sumeeta. Bibliographic Studies on the Work of Mary Shelley

http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/maryshel/patnaik.shtml. 2001-06-26

2

Frankenstein: Themes, Motifs & Symbols http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/frankenstein/themes.html.

3

Blish, James. On Science Fiction Criticism Riverside Quarterly, 1968, p 214. 3

about is the social or realistic meanings, or the significance of a certain character or a scene.

Religion, writing style, feminism are some of the key words in such essays.

In her The Imagination of Disaster, Susan Sontag analyzes the scenes of some science

fictions, and she gets a certain pattern of science fictions, they are “strongly moralistic”. The

standard message is the one about the proper, or humane, use of science, versus the mad,

obsessional use of science. John P. Sisk studies the predicting function of science fiction in his

article The Future of Prediction. Some of the critics think that science fiction is never

approved of by the moralist, because “it smacked of lying”.

1

With more and more science fictions have been published, more and more critical

approaches have been developed. Recent years, foreign critics stress more on moral sense

when they analyze science fiction.

Meantime, Chinese critics are working on it, too. Some critics take the features of

science fiction as “secular tendency and humanism”. They think that science fiction focuses

on political economy, moral problems and surviving environment in the real world.

As we all know that one of the attractive aspects of science fiction is its plots. There

must have been conflicts which will push the development of the plots. And one of these

often-used conflicts is ethical conflict. Of course, this attracts not only the ordinary readers,

but the critics as well. In fact, researches on the ethical meanings in science fictions appear

now and then. With the development of critical theories, the relationships between science

fictions and reality, especially the application of modern technology, critics have to think

about the significance in a totally new way. The new way is ethical analysis.

According to What is Ethics written by Mr. He Huaihong, the word “ethics” appeared in

a lot of ancient Chinese works. He understands it as “the way of being a human”, it is a

subject of the relationship of people

2

. American Heritage Dictionary (AHD) explains the

word as following “Ethics: the study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral

choices to be made by a person; moral philosophy.” or “The rules or standards governing the

conduct of a person or the members of a profession.”

“Ethics” derives from a Greek word “ethos” means “essential, personality”, and relates

to “custom”. Based on these factors, some Chinese scholar developed a new approach – the

ethical critical approach.

It is, in fact, a traditional approach. In the western theories, ethics could be found

almost everywhere. From Aristotle to Plato, Coleridge, Freud and Lacan, they all pay

attention to discovering the ethical connotation of literary works. The practice of ethical

criticism on literary works has been existing for a long time.

3

The reason I call it “a new

1

Heard, Gerald. Science Fiction, Morals, and Religion Science Fiction: The Future Dick Allen (ed). New York:

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1971, p 291.

2

Huaihong, He. What Is Ethics Beijing: Peking University Press 2002 p 8

3

Jianjun, Zou. The Three Dimension of Ethical Literary Criticism Foreign Literature Study 2005.5, p 28-29. 4


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