Marija Dalbello

Reading Interests of Adults

Science fiction

RutgersSchool of Communication and Informationdalbello@rutgers.edu

Image credit: Victor GAD

Overview _______________________________________

Introduction

What is Speculative fiction?

Science fiction and Fantasy: Points of comparison The literature of “What if?” World-building

Fandom and fan communities

History and types of science fiction

Conclusion

What is speculative fiction (SF)? _______________________________________

Speculative literature or speculative fiction

Umbrella term for science fiction, fantasy fiction, horror fiction, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history

Popularized by writers of the New Wave movement in the 1960s-1970s - genre as literary production

• Term originates from Robert A.Heinlein (1947) - synonymous with science fiction, to exclude fantasy

• Revival in the past decade to include fantasy - emphasis on literary and critical perspectives of SF writing

Comparing science fiction and fantasyThe literature of WHAT IF …?

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Science fictionImagination provides access to experience and social experiment

“Access to understanding and experiencing our past,present, and future in terms of an imagined future”

(Cramer 1994)Argument for an imagined world-order

Science fiction is any story that argues the case for a changed world that has not yet come into being. (Herald 2006, 313)

• Fantasy• An allegorical springboard for nostalgic leaps

to the past or into alternative worldsThe Difficult truths can sometimes only be told through

themedium of fantasy. (Herald 2000, 267)

Comparing science fiction and fantasyWorld-building

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Tolkien’s definition of the fantasy genre elements (from: On Fairy-Stories):

• Creation of an internally consistent secondary world (the “subcreation”)

• The use of Faerie (the use of magic and enchantment)

• World is accessed by the narrative skill of the author and the imaginative willingness of the reader

Comparing science fiction and fantasyWorld-building

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Extrapolative fiction - Science fiction

Abrupt transition from our world to the fantasy worldTransitions initiated by scientific mechanisms that transport us from our world to the fantasy world

• Evocative fiction - Fantasy

Another world is presented as clean and wholeAnother world is the place where the reader lives in for the length of the readingWe learn not only about an alternative world but also an entire and parallel world history, with myths and values, villains and heroes

Relevant approaches and theories

Fields of cultural production _______________________________________ Fields of cultural production (Bourdieu) expanded

beyond the producers of texts to producers of meanings around texts

Camille Bacon-Smith’s study of the culture of Worldcon conventions and fandom - ethnographic approach to describe the lived reality of science fiction community (readers and consumers of cultural products, creators and the industries)

Production and consumption in science fiction connected

Cultures of association exemplified in fandom - provide space outside of mainstream culture

Genres: science fiction, fantasy, costumers

SUCH AS IN …

Relevant approaches and theories

Fields of cultural production _______________________________________

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Historical development _______________________________________ Precursors (19th century)

1818 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells

• Science fiction (SF) term coined in 1929 and commonly accepted by 1930s

• The Golden Age of science fiction (1930s-1940s) Celebrates the world of patriarchal

technological modernity Focus on the mechanical, and how machines

would change the world Technology is the essence and basis for

characterization, plot is subsidiary

Alien contact (1950s) Concern with what is out there Gives rise to BEM (bug-eyed-monsters)

Historical development _______________________________________ The New Wave (1960s-1970s)

Non-mechanical sciences (novels deal with psychology, sociology, and how humans relate to their world and to change) - 1960s Feminist utopian and dystopian narratives -

1970s

Cyberpunk (starts in 1980s)• Technology is portrayed as being limited• Dystopian visions of technology and progress

Scientific advances (starts in 1990s) New technological developments

(nanotechnology, AI, bioengineering) become a visible force of the field

The Future at Risk (last decade)

Technology themes, dystopian visions, eco-terrorism, identities, etc.

An overview Types and Trends_______________________________________ Hard SF

Stories set in near future - focus on plausible science Scientists and their families, and those

immediately affected by science Includes:

Space travel and planetary exploration Utopian science fiction

• New Wave Stories set in the near future - focus on the

soft sciences (sociology, psychology, even religion) Focus on social order and politics (morality

in focus) The “imaginative vision” for the present Literary in nature (speculative fiction)

Slide based on handout developed by Bonnie Kunzel

An overview

Types and Trends _______________________________________ Science and Sociology

Social consequences of technical and scientific change Focus on biotechnology, computers, robots,

nanotechnology, artificial intelligence Cyberpunk

Technology of the internet and hacker culture set in the near future, including elements of popular culture

The Future at Risk

• Social consequences of technical and scientific change - focus on disaster or socio-economic focus• Includes:

• Disaster fiction (response to natural occurrences such as mutation) and apocalyptic end of everything• Dystopia: consequences of everyday behavior taken to extremes (a negative vision of politics, society, economy, and science and technology; feminist perspectives

Slide based on handout developed by Bonnie Kunzel

An overview

Types and Trends _______________________________________ Space opera

“Westerns in Spacesuits” on other planets, with stereotypical characters Including: Galactic Empires, Military Science

Fiction, The Great Conflict, After the Fall

Inner space and special powers Focus on the human mind and its powers, verging

on fantasy Including: extrasensory powers, religious and

messianic fiction

Slide based on handout developed by Bonnie Kunzel

Conclusion _______________________________________

Science fiction is closely related to fantasy Imagining an alternative social order and society

Reflecting on the consequences of technological modernity

Reflecting on the consequences of techno-scientific progress

Imagining the limits of humanity and its dystopian futures

Imagining transcendent humanity and its utopian advancement