"Science fiction, because of its links to science and technology, is the consummate literary vehicle for examining the perception and cultural impact of the modernization process in Brazil. Because of the centrality of the role played by the military dictatorship (1964-85) in imposing industrialization and economic development policies on Brazil, this book examines the genre in the periods before, during, and after the dictatorship, encompassing the years 1960-2000. The analysis shows that a reading of Brazilian science fiction based on its use of paradigms of Anglo-American science fiction and myths of Brazilian nationhood provides a unique look into Brazil's modern metamorphosis as it finds itself on the periphery of the globalized world." "The three periods studied here correspond roughly to the 1960s, the '70s, and he '80s to the present. The earliest group of authors produces mostly antitechnological, apolitical science fiction, as a way of affirming myths of Brazilian identity. Here, the deconstruction of myths of the feminine and of racial democracy provides the basis for the analysis of Brazil's notion of national identity. In the seventies, a second group of authors uses science fiction to protest the military regime, creating dystopian worlds in which the myths of Brazilian culture serve as touchstones to criticize various ills associated with urbanization, industrialization, and repression. In the analysis of these texts, the insights of ecofeminism are employed to demystify the conflation of the land with women found in the nostalgic construction of Brazilian identity characteristic of this period. The third group, emerging in the mideighties after the dictatorship, offers a more complex, postmodern view of Brazilian society, its continuing social problems, and the phenomenon of globalization. Reading these texts as allegories of modernization enriches the understanding of both the genre of science fiction and the experience of modernity itself."--BOOK JACKET.