Why can't the universe be more like me? : a post-colonial reading of Frank Herbert's Dune.

• Main Author: Salamat, Armand Patrick R.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 1998
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/1703
• Institution: De La Salle University

Abstract. Science Fiction is a field that is often described as predictive but is actually not so. It actually reflects society more than it extrapolates. What then is the difference of Science Fiction from other genres? It is the creation of its own universe as setting, different from our own, based on certain scientific assumptions that makes it different. Frank Herbert's novel Dune, is a work of Science Fiction which is very popular thus having a wide audience reach. It is a highly acclaimed piece of work which, as with most Science Fiction, is written by a Westerner. This study aims to find out if Dune, when studied using a post-colonial framework, will stand the test. Will we find it to be post-colonially sensitive or just plain imperialist? The method to be used is close reading with post-colonial awareness. The sign of imperialism are to be discovered and interpreted. After analyzing the said text using the post-colonialism described in Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin's The Empire Writes Back, it has been found that at first glance, the novel seems post-colonially correct meaning it favors the marginalized and subverts the centre. But a deeper look reveals that the centre is merely replaced and the same privileged few who ruled before still rule. The marginalized are still marginalized. Dune by Frank Herbert is imperialist in nature.