Positions and Presuppositions in Science Fiction

Positions and Presuppositions in Science Fiction PDF Author: Darko Suvin
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349081795
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Positions and Presuppositions in Science Fiction

Positions and Presuppositions in Science Fiction PDF Author: Darko Suvin
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349081795
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description


Parables of Freedom and Narrative Logics

Parables of Freedom and Narrative Logics PDF Author: Darko Suvin
Publisher: Nbn International
ISBN: 9781800790575
Category : Literary form
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
This major two-volume collection presents Darko Suvin's critical meditations on science fiction and utopia from the late 1960s through the early years of the new millennium.

The Role of Science Fiction

The Role of Science Fiction PDF Author: Stefan Weihampel
Publisher: Diplomica Verlag
ISBN: 3836660067
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 113

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Book Description
In "The role of Science Fiction in selected works of Isaac Asimov and Kurt Vonnegut" the author elaborates upon important similarities and differences between the use of science fiction motives in selected works of Isaac Asimov and Kurt Vonnegut. The analysis includes Asimov's Foundation and Robots and Empire and Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan and Galapagos.

The Role of Science Fiction

The Role of Science Fiction PDF Author: Stefan Weißhampel
Publisher: diplom.de
ISBN: 383661006X
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description
Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: Since Kurt Vonnegut passed away aged 84 earlier this year (11th April 2007), his life and work received considerable media recognition. While FOX-news could not refrain from expressing rather hostile criticism in their Vonnegut obituary, admirers of Vonnegut's works reacted with angry comments to the aforementioned programme. All over the internet bloggers expressed their regrets and wrote their own obituaries commenting on Vonnegut's life as well as his books. Why does the death of an 84 year old author leaving a body of 14 novels, three collections of short stories, one compilation of fictitious interviews with dead celebrities, four works of non-fiction, five plays and one requiem lead to public reactions which differ so widely? How can the works of an author who persisted to write his last book on an old typewriter be so relevant for the technophiles of the blogosphere? These questions alone justify the continuation of an academic discourse on the works of Kurt Vonnegut which has been going on four almost forty years following the publication of Slaughterhouse-Five in 1969. Ever since that novel, critics rarely fail to mention the considerable influence of science fiction on Vonnegut's writing. Man's relationship to technology and the effects of technology on inter-human communication are central motifs in science fiction: hence, the web 2.0 generation's reaction to Vonnegut's death provides an extraordinary indication that the problems pondered upon in Vonnegut's science fiction are still relevant today. However, it has to be said that most critics' references to science fiction elements in Vonnegut's works remain limited to a surface level and evoke the impression that either the scholar is not well informed about the implications of the term 'science fiction' or fails to name his or her references. The effect of such an approach is that the works on the subject will either seem to be apologetic annexions of Vonnegut's novels by science fiction buffs and space opera fans or attempts to minimise the role of science fiction in the works of Kurt Vonnegut to mere parody. Neither impression is adequate for a thorough understanding of the role of science fiction in the works of Kurt Vonnegut. Therefore, in this paper a coordinate system discussing the implication of the term science fiction will be set up, in which Vonnegut's works can be located. In order to find a valid reference point, a fixed set of aspects will be [...]

The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction

The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction PDF Author: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
ISBN: 0819571520
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
This major critical work from one of the preeminent voices in science fiction scholarship reframes the genre as a way of understanding today’s world. As the application of technoscience increasingly transforms every aspect of life, science fiction has become an essential mode of imagining the horizons of possibility. Though the broad scope of science fiction may vary in artistic quality and sophistication, it shares a desire to imagine a collective future for the human species and the world. A strikingly high proportion of today’s films, commercial art, popular music, video games, and non-genre fiction are what Csicsery-Ronay calls “science fictional” —stimulating science-fictional habits of mind. We no longer treat science fiction as merely a genre-engine producing formulaic effects, but as a mode of awareness, which frames experiences as if they were aspects of science fiction. The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction describes science fiction as a constellation of seven diverse cognitive attractions that are particularly formative of science-fictionality. These are the “seven beauties” of the title: fictive neology, fictive novums, future history, imaginary science, the science-fictional sublime, the science-fictional grotesque, and the Technologiade, or the epic of technoscience’s development into a global regime.

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Literature

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Literature PDF Author: Brian M. Stableford
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 9780810849389
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
This reference tracks the development of speculative fiction influenced by the advancement of science and the idea of progress from the eighteenth century to the present day. The major authors and publications of the genre and significant subgenres are covered. Additionally there are entries on fields of science and technology which have been particularly prolific in provoking such speculation. The list of acronyms and abbreviations, the chronology covering the literature from the 1700s through the present, the introductory essay, and the dictionary entries provide science fiction novices and enthusiasts as well as serious writers and critics with a wonderful foundation for understanding the realm of science fiction literature. The extensive bibliography that includes books, journals, fanzines, and websites demonstrates that science fiction literature commands a massive following.

Political Theory, Science Fiction, and Utopian Literature

Political Theory, Science Fiction, and Utopian Literature PDF Author: Tony Burns
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739144871
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed is of interest to political theorists partly because of its association with anarchism and partly because it is thought to represent a turning point in the history of utopian/dystopian political thought and literature and of science fiction. Published in 1974, it marked a revival of utopianism after decades of dystopian writing. According to this widely accepted view The Dispossessed represents a new kind of literary utopia, which Tom Moylan calls a 'critical utopia.' The present work challenges this reading of The Dispossessed and its place in the histories of utopian/dystopian literature and science fiction. It explores the difference between traditional literary utopia and novels and suggests that The Dispossessed is not a literary utopia but a novel about utopianism in politics. Le Guin's concerns have more to do with those of the novelists of the 19th century writing in the tradition of European Realism than they do with the science fiction or utopian literature. It also claims that her theory of the novel has an affinity with the ancient Greek tragedy. This implies that there is a conservatism in Le Guin's work as a creative writer, or as a novelist, which fits uneasily with her personal commitment to anarchism.

The Science Fiction Handbook

The Science Fiction Handbook PDF Author: Nick Hubble
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 147253896X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
As we move through the 21st century, the importance of science fiction to the study of English Literature is becoming increasingly apparent. The Science Fiction Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to the genre and how to study it for students new to the field. In particular, it provides detailed entries on major writers in the SF field who might be encountered on university-level English Literature courses, ranging from H.G. Wells and Philip K. Dick, to Doris Lessing and Geoff Ryman. Other features include an historical timeline, sections on key writers, critics and critical terms, and case studies of both literary and critical works. In the later sections of the book, the changing nature of the science fiction canon and its growing role in relation to the wider categories of English Literature are discussed in depth introducing the reader to the latest critical thinking on the field.

Teaching Science Fiction

Teaching Science Fiction PDF Author: A. Sawyer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230300391
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Teaching Science Fiction is the first text in thirty years to explore the pedagogic potential of that most intellectually stimulating and provocative form of popular literature: science fiction. Innovative and academically lively, it offers valuable insights into how SF can be taught historically, culturally and practically at university level.

Learning from Other Worlds

Learning from Other Worlds PDF Author: Patrick Parrinder
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822327738
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
A definite look at the state of science fiction studies today that surveys the field from Hugo Gernsbach to the present.