Histories of the Future : Studies in Fact, Fantasy and Science Fiction

by Edited by Alan Sandison and Robert Dingley

• ISBN13: 9780312236045
• ISBN10: 0312236042
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2001-01-13
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Science Fiction in Context: Histories of the Future examines some of the ways in which writers, artists, film-makers, strategists, and political thinkers have imagined the future over the last two centuries. Although a number of contributions discuss "mainstream" science fiction, the collection's emphasis is not on any single genre, but rather on the ways in which different histories generate and inform different modes of speculation.

Author Biography

Alan Sandison is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of New England.

Robert Dingley is Senior Lecturer in the School of English, Communication, and Theatre at the University of New England.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface	x
Acknowledgements	xv
Notes on the Contributors	xvi
Introducing the Future: the Dawn of Science-Fiction Criticism	1	(7)
Harry Harrison
History in SF: What (Hasn't Yet) Happened in History	8	(7)
Ken MacLeod
The Ruins of the Future: Macaulay's New Zealander and the Spirit of the Age	15	(19)
Robert Dingley
Celluloid Scientists: Futures Visualised	34	(17)
Roslynn D. Haynes
Losing the Sense of Space: Forster's `The Machine Stops' and Jameson's «Third Machine Age»	51	(21)
Beatrice Battaglia
Boys, Battleships, Books: the Cult of the Navy in US Juvenile Fiction, 1898--1919	72	(19)
Bruce Brasington
American Dreams and Edwardian Aspirations: Technological Innovation and Temporal Uncertainty in Narratives of Expectation	91	(21)
Charles E. Gannon
Filing the Future: Reporting on World War Three	112	(12)
David Seed
The Map of Apocalypse: Nuclear War and the Space of Dystopia in American Science Fiction	124	(13)
Brian Baker
A New World Made to Order: Making Sense of the Future in a Global Era	137	(15)
Alasdair Spark
Sign, Symbol, Power: the New Martian Novel	152	(16)
Robert Crossley
Starship Troopers, Galactic Heroes, Mercenary Princes: the Military and its Discontents in Science Fiction	168	(16)
Tom Shippey
Terrible Angels: Science Fiction and the Singularity	184	(13)
Damien Broderick
Index	197