An Affordance Approach to Spatial Confinement in Science Fiction and Horror

This paper uses affordance theory to understand setting as a technology that performs narrative work. We focus on the changing role of island settings in the history of science fiction (sf) literature and film (including sf horror). Island settings have been used for their affordance of confinement, which can produce feelings of fear and produce the monstrous, both within the narrative and for readers/viewers. As changing sociotechnical contexts have reduced the island setting’s ability to provide this affordance, users have increasingly turned to other settings that better afford spatial confinement, including sailing ships, alien planets, spaceships, and haunted houses.