Researchers of Science Fiction Gave UT Researcher a Reputable Award
The Science Fiction Research Association, the oldest and biggest professional organization for the study of science fiction, gave one of its two yearly awards to Jaak Tomberg, Research Fellow of Estonian literature in the University of Tartu.
Jaak Tomberg’s essay On the Double Vision of Realism and SF Estrangement in Gibson’s Bigend Trilogy published in the magazine Science Fiction Studies was announced the best critical essay-length work of the year. Tomberg says he has always been fascinated by the ability of science fiction to give meaning to the technological contemporary culture as well as the plausibility of the contemporary realistic texts.
In the winning article, he analysed the cultural descriptions in the last novel trilogy of the Canadian writer William Gibson. “My article attempts to analyse the poetic, philosophic and cultural-theoretic conditions of this contemporary simultaneity. I emanate from the hypothesis that the more technological and technically intense our everyday reality gets, the more science-fictional gets the literary text that tries to reflect on this reality with realistic plausibility,” explains the researcher.
The award for lifetime contribution to science fiction and fantasy was given to writer, critic and lecturer Joan Gordon. The awards are handed over to the winners in the U.S, Madison, on the SFRA’s annual conference.