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Marija Dalbello Reading Interests of Adults Science fiction

Image credit: Victor GAD. Marija Dalbello Reading Interests of Adults Science fiction. Rutgers School of Communication and Information dalbello@rutgers.edu. Overview _______________________________________ Introduction What is Speculative fiction?

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Marija Dalbello Reading Interests of Adults Science fiction

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  1. Image credit: Victor GAD Marija Dalbello Reading Interests of Adults Science fiction Rutgers School of Communication and Informationdalbello@rutgers.edu

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. Comparing science fiction and fantasyThe literature of WHAT IF …? • _______________________________________ • Science fiction • Imagination 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 worlds • The Difficult truths can sometimes only be told through the • medium of fantasy. (Herald 2000, 267)

  5. Comparing science fiction and fantasyWorld-building • _______________________________________ • 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

  6. Comparing science fiction and fantasyWorld-building • _______________________________________ • Extrapolative fiction - Science fiction • Abrupt transition from our world to the fantasy world • Transitions initiated by scientific mechanisms that transport us from our world to the fantasy world • Evocative fiction - Fantasy • Another world is presented as clean and whole • Another world is the place where the reader lives in for the length of the reading • We learn not only about an alternative world but also an entire and parallel world history, with myths and values, villains and heroes

  7. 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 …

  8. Relevant approaches and theories Fields of cultural production _______________________________________ OR …

  9. AS SHOWN IN …

  10. 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)

  11. 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.

  12. An overviewTypes 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

  13. 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

  14. 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

  15. 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

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