Thu Ngo Bich (PhD) holds a BA from Vietnam National University (VNU), MA and PhD from Vietnam’s National Academy. Her research interests include linguistics, literature, and Southeast Asian literature. She currently works at the Vietnam National University, Hanoi. E-mail: nbthuhn@gmail.com
The Conflicts Between Humans and Robots in Viet Linh’s Science Fiction: An Ecocritical Study of Strange Planet
Abstract: From the perspective of ecological criticism, this paper focuses on analyzing and explaining the “strange planet” model in the work of the same title by Viet Linh, Vietnam’s most successful science-fiction writer. This model ensures a balance between natural and social ecosystems, allowing optimal use of natural and social resources. The risk of a conflict between humans and robots and the path to non-violent reconciliation between those two “races” are described in the story to convey the message that scientists should only invent robots when they can control them. The paper also aims at comparing and establishing a dialogue between Vietnamese science-fiction and science-fiction from other countries in Southeast Asia, identifying similarities and differences, as well as reflecting on the contribution of the genre to a posthumanist dialogue among Southeast Asian literatures.
Keywords: science-fiction, ecocriticism, natureculture, humans, robots, Vietnamese literature