Translated Abstract
Arthur C. Clarke, the splendid pearl in western scientific world, has contributed hundreds of works to science fiction all his life, and is renounced as “Prophet of the Space Age” for the precise prediction of his works. 2001: A Space Odyssey, the masterpiece of Arthur C. Clarke, was made into a movie and released in 1968. The movie was nominated for four Academy Awards and received one for its visual effects.
Currently, many scholars abroad and at home have done researches on 2001: A Space Odyssey, however, there are few researches on this novel from the postcolonial theory. Totally speaking, postcolonial theory aims to criticize Eurocentrism, to dispel and subvert the binary opposition relationship between the colonizer (usually the Occident) and the colonized. In Orientalism, Said pointed out that the reason for Occident building an inferior Orient and building the binary opposition between the Occident and the Orient is to demonstrate its superiority. And the very purpose for Said to unravel this truth is to eliminate the binary opposition between the Occident and the Orient, which is the core ideology of postcolonialism. In Homi K. Bhabha’s opinion, when the colonizer governs the colonized, the relationship between them is not pure resist. They will influence each other and immerse into each other, resulting in cultural and identity hybridity which subverts the binary opposition between the Self and the Other.
After a careful reading and analysis, the author of this thesis found that the novel mainly discusses such problems as human beings’ exploration of the universe, the relationship between human beings and aliens, and the ultimate goal of the civilization of human beings. In this thesis, the author first attempted to clarify the binary opposition relationship between human beings and aliens in this novel based on the binary opposition between the Occident (the Self) and the Orient (the Other) put forward by Edward Said. As aliens had visited the earth in the primeval age, and human beings have never stopped exploring the universe, the author of this paper then set out to investigate the true identities of human beings and aliens. It was found that aliens are the true Self to some extent while human beings are the Other, which subverts the binary opposition in postcolonial theory and proves that under certain circumstances the Self can exchange identity with the Other. Lastly, in light of the conception of hybridity proposed by Homi K. Bhabha the author of this thesis examined the Star Child--an entity evolved from human beings under the guidance of aliens, and found that the Star Child actually is an integration of human beings and aliens, a hybridity of human civilizations and alien civilizations.
The research on the concrete embodiment of the colonizer as the Self and the colonized as the Other and the interchange process of the identity of the Self and the Other will help human beings to better understand their position in the universe, to be more genial toward aliens, and to harmoniously live with the civilization of the Outer Space.
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