The Peculiarly British Scientific Space Explorer

As part of my investigation into British science fiction of the twenty-first century, I am developing the claim that British SF emerges from a particular inheritance, one in which the figure of the scientific explorer brings with it a specific national-cultural identity. These are figures for whom their legitimacy is derived from narratives of scientific authority. Where the interstellar explorers of North American science-fiction still set off with pioneer spirit, British SF is populated by scientific explorers who travel under the steam of authorising and authenticating discourse. This paper will ask what form this discourse takes, and ask what it means to identify scientist characters as inheritors of a peculiarly ‘British’ inheritance.

I will read these figures in the science-fiction novels of astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, in which the relationship between scientific endeavour and post-war national identity becomes acute. I will also briefly look at the way in which Hoyle himself performs the figure of the scientist-explorer through his science-fiction. From here I will extrapolate the argument that the tradition of authenticating discourse remains prevalent in 21st century British science fiction, particularly when read against (or perhaps as part of) the now problematised colonial discourses of exploration.