Memoirs of a Spacewoman: Naomi Mitchison's intergalactic education. Issue 12 (1st December 2020)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Memoirs of a Spacewoman: Naomi Mitchison's intergalactic education. Issue 12 (1st December 2020)
- Main Title:
- Memoirs of a Spacewoman: Naomi Mitchison's intergalactic education
- Authors:
- Maher, Ashley
- Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: In Memoirs of a Spacewoman (1962), a novel in which a space-traveling communications specialist describes her early training and career progression, Naomi Mitchison reimagines the memoir and Bildungs roman forms to depict an individual who develops not by overcoming hostile environments but by being radically transformed by her surroundings. If the classical Bildungsroman mapped the protagonist's youthful development onto the nation, Mitchison's future fiction memoir tests the novelistic means of representing maturity: there can be no ultimate reconciliation for Mary because the universe is composed of an infinite series of worlds. As Mitchison reworks the structure of the novel of development through what might – against Lukacs's '"bad" infinity' – be called the 'good infinity' of space and the expansive self, she also refigures the role of formal education. Subjective time diverges from historical time in space travel, producing 'time blackouts' that allow Mary and her colleagues to extend their education, along with their lives. Memoir bleeds into research publication, and Mitchison accordingly offers a new representative protagonist: the mature researcher, whose malleability and even self-erasure enable a collectively achieved – and always developing – body of knowledge.
- Is Part Of:
- Textual practice. Volume 34:Issue 12(2020)
- Journal:
- Textual practice
- Issue:
- Volume 34:Issue 12(2020)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 34, Issue 12 (2020)
- Year:
- 2020
- Volume:
- 34
- Issue:
- 12
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2020-0034-0012-0000
- Page Start:
- 2145
- Page End:
- 2165
- Publication Date:
- 2020-12-01
- Subjects:
- Naomi Mitchison -- speculative fiction -- female Bildungsroman -- memoir -- imperialism -- science fiction
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
Criticism -- Periodicals
Criticism, Textual -- Periodicals
Semiotics -- Periodicals
801.95 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rtpr20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/0950236X.asp ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/0950236X.2020.1834699 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0950-236X
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 8813.780460
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 22748.xml