{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/78565"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/78565","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Conspicuously Canadian: Canadian Identity in Anglo-Canadian Science Fiction","abstract":"Ph.D.","abstract_html":"Ph.D.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Kauderer, Herb"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Schmid, David","Transnational Studies - Canadian American Studies","Africana and American Studies"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018-10-26T02:55:38Z","date_published":"2018-10-26T02:55:38Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:12Z","subjects":["literature"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/78565","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Schmid, David","Transnational Studies - Canadian American Studies","Africana and American Studies"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Kauderer, Herb"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2018-10-26T02:55:38Z","2018","2018-08-07 15:47:51"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Dissertation","Text"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["literature"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/78565"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ph.D.","Canadian science fiction as an independent sub-genre self-identified in 1979 with the publication of John Robert Colombo’s seminal anthology Other Canadas. The anthology became a central point in the emergence of a vital community of practitioners, critics, readers, and fans of Canadian science fiction that were intensely interested in their Canadian identity. What had been an internal discussion became external when William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer was published in 1984 and became the bestselling Canadian novel of all time, regardless of genre. Over the last fifty years science fiction has emerged as a dominant cultural force worldwide, and the extraordinary success and popularity of Neuromancer suddenly and unexpectedly pushed Canadian science fiction into the spotlight. Neuromancer was followed the next year by Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, which received great critical acclaim, including winning Britain’s Arthur C. Clarke Award. The overwhelming success of these novels created the potential for a large increase in Canadian influence, especially as regards to the deliberative rhetorical value of science fiction. These tentpole novels created influential styles of presenting Canadian identity on the world stage, but styles which problematically minimized Canadian identifiers and signifiers by often hiding or submerging them. These styles dominated the field until Robert J. Sawyer’s The Terminal Experiment became a third tentpole novel by winning the Nebula Award, and achieving popular success. Sawyer then leveraged the success of his novel into a platform for promoting overt Canadian identity in science fiction, thereby altering perceptions of Canadian identity internationally. Sawyer’s model of presenting Canadian identity has gained followers and shaped the field, potentially solving the problem of Canadian science fiction that hides its Canadianness, but that new trend has not been fully examined by the critical community. In addition to the critical importance of the new model of national self-identity in Canadian science fiction, identification of Canadian content in science fiction makes it eligible for Canadians-only publishers, for Canadian arts funding, and for Canadian science fiction awards. Sawyer’s model of presenting Canadian content is clearer than existing models that tend to depend on circumstance of creation (such as citizenship of author and location of composition) or characteristic Canadian themes. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of how Sawyer’s model may also be generalizable to non-science fiction and applicable to Canadian content policy as part of a larger effort to identify and measure Canadian content in all Canadian popular literature including film and television. The fostering of Canadian content is an essential component of the Canadian federal government in strengthening the meta-nation in an unusually diverse country, and the tools identified in this work enable strengthening to be accomplished on a higher level."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Conspicuously Canadian: Canadian Identity in Anglo-Canadian Science Fiction"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Schmid, David","Transnational Studies - Canadian American Studies","Africana and American Studies"],"dc:creator":["Kauderer, Herb"],"dc:date":["2018-10-26T02:55:38Z","2018","2018-08-07 15:47:51"],"dc:description":["Ph.D.","Canadian science fiction as an independent sub-genre self-identified in 1979 with the publication of John Robert Colombo’s seminal anthology Other Canadas. The anthology became a central point in the emergence of a vital community of practitioners, critics, readers, and fans of Canadian science fiction that were intensely interested in their Canadian identity. What had been an internal discussion became external when William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer was published in 1984 and became the bestselling Canadian novel of all time, regardless of genre. Over the last fifty years science fiction has emerged as a dominant cultural force worldwide, and the extraordinary success and popularity of Neuromancer suddenly and unexpectedly pushed Canadian science fiction into the spotlight. Neuromancer was followed the next year by Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, which received great critical acclaim, including winning Britain’s Arthur C. Clarke Award. The overwhelming success of these novels created the potential for a large increase in Canadian influence, especially as regards to the deliberative rhetorical value of science fiction. These tentpole novels created influential styles of presenting Canadian identity on the world stage, but styles which problematically minimized Canadian identifiers and signifiers by often hiding or submerging them. These styles dominated the field until Robert J. Sawyer’s The Terminal Experiment became a third tentpole novel by winning the Nebula Award, and achieving popular success. Sawyer then leveraged the success of his novel into a platform for promoting overt Canadian identity in science fiction, thereby altering perceptions of Canadian identity internationally. Sawyer’s model of presenting Canadian identity has gained followers and shaped the field, potentially solving the problem of Canadian science fiction that hides its Canadianness, but that new trend has not been fully examined by the critical community. In addition to the critical importance of the new model of national self-identity in Canadian science fiction, identification of Canadian content in science fiction makes it eligible for Canadians-only publishers, for Canadian arts funding, and for Canadian science fiction awards. Sawyer’s model of presenting Canadian content is clearer than existing models that tend to depend on circumstance of creation (such as citizenship of author and location of composition) or characteristic Canadian themes. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of how Sawyer’s model may also be generalizable to non-science fiction and applicable to Canadian content policy as part of a larger effort to identify and measure Canadian content in all Canadian popular literature including film and television. The fostering of Canadian content is an essential component of the Canadian federal government in strengthening the meta-nation in an unusually diverse country, and the tools identified in this work enable strengthening to be accomplished on a higher level."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/78565"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["literature"],"dc:title":["Conspicuously Canadian: Canadian Identity in Anglo-Canadian Science Fiction"],"dc:type":["Dissertation","Text"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:12Z"}