The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction

by Latham, Rob

• ISBN13: 9780199838844
• ISBN10: 0199838844
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-10-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The excitement of possible futures found in science fiction has long fired the human imagination, but the genre's acceptance by academe is relatively recent. No longer marginalized and fighting for respectability, science-fictional works are now studied alongside more traditional art forms. Tracing the capacious genre's birth, evolution, and impact across nations, time periods, subgenres, and media, The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction offers an in-depth, comprehensive assessment of this robust area of scholarly inquiry and considers the future directions that will dictate the terms of the scholarly discourse.

The Handbook begins with a focus on questions of genre, covering topics such as critical history, keywords, narrative, the fantastic, and fandom. A subsequent section on media engages with film, television, comics, architecture, music, video games, and more. The genre's role in the convergence of art and everyday life animates a third section, which addresses topics such as UFOs,

Author Biography

Rob Latham is the author of Consuming Youth: Vampires, Cyborgs, and the Culture of Consumption and a senior editor of the journal Science Fiction Studies. He is also a member of the editorial boards of The Journal of Science Fiction Film and Television and The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.

Table of Contents

Contributors

Introduction


Part I. Science Fiction as Genre

1. "Extrapolation and Speculation"
Brooks Landon

2. "Aesthetics"
Peter Stockwell

3. "Histories"
Arthur B. Evans

4. "Literary Movements"
Gary K. Wolfe

5. "Fandom"
Farah Mendlesohn

6. "The Marketplace"
Gary Westfahl

7. "Pulp Science Fiction"
Jess Nevins

8. "Literary Science Fiction"
Joan Gordon

9. "Slipstream"
Victoria de Zwaan

10. "The Fantastic"
Brian Attebery

11. "Genre vs. Mode"
Veronica Hollinger


Part II. Science Fiction as Medium

12. "Film"
Mark Bould

13. "Radio and Television"
J.P. Telotte

14. "Animation"
Paul Wells

15. "Art and Illustration"
Jerome Winter

16. "Comics"
Corey Creekmur

17. "Video Games"
Pawe? Frelik

18. "Digital Arts and Hypertext"
James Tobias

19. "Music"
John Cline

20. "Performance Art"
Steve Dixon

21. "Architecture"
Nic Clear

22. "Theme Parks"
Leonie Cooper


Part III. Science Fiction as Culture

23. "The Culture of Science"
Sherryl Vint

24. "Automation"
Roger Luckhurst

25. "Military Culture"
Steffen Hantke

26. "Atomic Culture and the Space Race"
David Seed

27. "UFOs, Scientology, and Other SF Religions"
Gregory L. Reece

28. "Advertising and Design"
Jonathan M. Woodham

29. "Countercultures"
Rob Latham

30. "Sexuality"
Patricia Melzer

31. "Body Modification"
Ross Farnell

32. "Cyberculture"
Thomas Foster

33. "Retrofuturism and Steampunk"
Elizabeth Guffey and Kate C. Lemay


Part IV. Science Fiction as Worldview

34. "The Enlightenment"
Adam Roberts

35. "The Gothic"
William Hughes

36. "Darwinism"
Patrick B. Sharp

37. "Colonialism and Postcolonialism"
John Rieder

38. "Pseudoscience"
Anthony Enns

39. "Futurology"
Andrew M. Butler

40. "Posthumanism"
Colin Milburn

41. "Feminism"
Lisa Yaszek

42. "Libertarianism and Anarchism"
Neil Easterbrook

43. "Afrofuturism"
De Witt Douglas Kilgore

44. "Utopianism"
Phillip E. Wegner