2. What distinctions are there between alternate history, postmodern alternate history and uchronie genres?
Under the genre of science fiction as literary subgenres, alternate history, postmodern history and uchronie genres are literary storylines built around the hypothesis of alternate worlds or universes that exist simultaneously. The proposition can be linked to original theories of many world interpretations and universal wavefunction proposed by Hugh Everett (1957); these theories explain the simultaneous existence of all possible states. The subgenres also follow the theory of infinite number of universes proposed by David Deutsch (2011) and a paradox in quantum physics called Schrödinger’s cat put forth by physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1935). In terms of these genres, a certain event in history would take place differently which results in the creation of an alternate timeline of events, temporally and spatially. According to Mountfort (2016), uchronie genres are categorised into three distinctions, those being ‘pure chronie’, ‘plural chronia’ and ‘infinite chronia’; a singular alternate world exists in the first, the second consists of the existence of an alternate world in parallel, and the third is the existence of even, infinite parallel worlds. To readers it is a factor of curiosity wherein alternate possibilities are imagined and questioned as events continue to produce a distinct timeline; in layman’s terms, it is the ‘what if’ factor in literary fiction (Wired, 2011).
Man In The High Castle (MITHC) written by Philip K. Dick is regarded as a classic example of alternate history in literature. In Dick’s work it is considered synchronic rather than diachronic; the storyline is inspired by I Ching, or the Book of Changes, which is an ancient Chinese literary device (Mountfort, 2016). Also regarded as a prime example of the uchronie genre, the storyline of MITHC narrates a world where Nazi Germany and Japan won World War II, and illustrates post 1962 the altered reality of the United States and Pacific West Coast if those were usurped by the Japanese and Atlantic East Coast under German capture (Mountfort, 2016). Characters in I Ching use the oracle book to determine their following courses of action, which implies a new construct of time broken from conventional understanding (Mountfort, 2016). To explain this synchronic perspective observed in MITHC, scholar Carl Jung attempt to elaborate on the concept of synchronicity which involves certain events in history being altered (Mountfort, 2016). Jung asserts the concept of synchronicity to be an ‘acausal connecting principle’.
The uchronie genre follows a linear timeline of event but heavily consists of lack of consistency in events; this is in close link to the many worlds interpretation which explains similarities that occur alongside parallel worlds that exist but have no direct relationship or a single string of cause (Mountfort, 2016). In simple words, all events occurring in one world or universe have or will have occurred in another or possibly multiverses. Though slightly remote, contemporary examples in science fiction films that play with theories in quantum physics and the whole premise of alternate history are Interstellar, Back to the Future series, and Men in Black series just to name a few.
In conclusion, all three genres consist of alternate world or worlds that coexist but events in their timeline are altered and in result, alter the future. Synchronic and diachronic perspectives are what distinguish these genres, along with the unconventional factor of temporal and spatial alternatives.
References
Dick, P. (1962). The Man in the High Castle. London: Penguin.
Mountfort, P. (2016). The I Ching and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. SF-TH Inc
Mountfort, P. (2020). Week 10: The Man in the High Castle, uchronie and the I Ching. PowerPoint.
Wired (2011). The ‘If’ Moment: A Brief History of Alternate Histories. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2011/05/alternate-histories/
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