From its beginnings in the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne to the virtual worlds of William Gibson's Neuromancer and The Matrix, Science Fiction: A Guide to the Perplexed helps students navigate ...the often perplexing worlds of a perennially popular genre. Drawing on literature as well as example from film and television, the book explores the different answers that criticism has offered to the vexed question, what is science fiction?' Each chapter of the book includes case studies of key texts, annotated guides to further reading and suggestions for class discussion to help students master the full range of contemporary critical approaches to the field, including the scientific, technological and political contexts in which the genre has flourished. Ranging from an understanding of the genre through the stereotypes of 1930s pulps through more recent claims that we are living in a science fictional moment, this volume will provide a comprehensive overview of this diverse and fascinating genre.
The term 'science fiction' has an established common usage, but close examination reveals that writers, fans, editors, scholars, and publishers often use this word in different ways for different ...reasons. Exploring how science fiction has emerged through competing versions and the struggle to define its limits, this Concise History:
provides an accessible and clear overview of the development of the genre
traces the separation of sf from a broader fantastic literature and the simultaneous formation of neighbouring genres, such as fantasy and horror
shows the relationship between magazine and paperback traditions in sf publishing
is organised by theme and presented chronologically
uses text boxes throughout to highlight key works in sf traditions including dystopian, apocalyptic and evolutionary fiction
includes a short overview and bullet-pointed conclusion for each chapter.
Discussing the place of key works and looking forward to the future of the genre, this book is the ideal starting point both for students and all those seeking a better understanding of science fiction.
This volume sheds light on the social and cultural transformations that accompanied the Covid-19 crisis by looking at health and biopolitics from a philosophical and literary perspective. The ...biopolitical measures taken globally in response to the crisis have led to previously unheard-of restrictions in liberal societies, resulting in deep and potentially lasting transformations both in social structures and interpersonal relationships. Many researchers have addressed the Covid-19 crisis as a political or epidemiological challenge, but few have paid sufficient attention to the culturally specific reactions and cultural representations of the human beings at the centre of events. Literary analyses capture this human component and give insights into different reactions to, and protests against, the health-political measures addressing the crisis. This book puts the notion of biopolitics, first extensively theorised in the 1970s, to work in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and uses literary case studies as starting points for discussions of contemporary politics, media, and legal and surveillance regimes. It brings together eleven scholars from six countries with the shared aim of combining literary and philosophical expertise to create a better understanding of the changes in society and political attitudes induced by the ongoing pandemic.
Karen Tei Yamashita's Tropic of Orange uses speculative techniques to offer a complex, multi-layered map of the global cultures and economies of Los Angeles and to insist that the vision of ...globalization as seen by capital is itself fantastical. Following in a tradition of sf and postcolonial writers who insist that the techniques of realism are insufficient to represent the overdetermined social world, Yamashita's novel challenges in particular the imaginary lines of national and other economic borders, which artificially divide otherwise organic communities and which allow the free flow of goods and capital but restrict the migration of people. Narrating the overlapping lives of a variety of characters from different racial, social, economic, and geographic segments of LA, Tropic of Orange offers a guide to another kind of urban community and another way to envision--and thus enact--the global ties that bind us all, a globalization beyond neoliberalism. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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