Date of Award
5-2011
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
English
Department
English
Major Professor
Steeby, Elizabeth
Second Advisor
Hazlett, John
Third Advisor
Lackey, Kris
Abstract
In this paper, I consider how Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers (1959) and Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game (1985) allegorically treat U.S. Cold War fears of invasion by the Soviet Union. Given the texts' historical relationship to the Vietnam War and their use of very similar science fiction tropes (namely, invasion by communistic, insect-like aliens), I argue that Orson Scott Card reimagines the binary Cold War conflict, softening the rhetoric of Starship Troopers and allowing for a more qualified understanding of the relationship between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. Through this analysis, I also consider how science fiction is a useful tool of cultural criticism in that it posits future worlds so as to reflect contemporary social concerns.
Recommended Citation
Perniciaro, Leon, "Shifting Understandings of Imperialism: A Collision of Cultures in Starship Troopers and Ender's Game" (2011). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 1338.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1338
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.