Locating Science Fiction

Description

'Locating Science Fiction' is a major intervention in contemporary theoretical debates about science fiction as a literary, film and television genre and its relation to the immediately cognate genres of utopia, dystopia and fantasy. It asks and attempts to answer three general questions about science fiction: first, what was it? (a question that is addressed both positively, in relation to the genre itself, and negatively, in relation to utopia, dystopia and fantasy); second, when was it? That is, what was its time?; and third, where was it? that is, what was its geographical space? Through a comparative and historical framework that draws upon Raymond Williams' 'cultural materialism', Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of culture and Franco Moretti's application of world-systems theory to comparative literary studies, Milner delivers a critical tour-de-force that will push Science Fiction studies into new directions. Acknowledgements List of Figures 1. Memories of Dan Dare Memories of Science Fiction. Literature, Genre and Popular Fiction. Memories of Dan Dare. Tales of Resonance and Wonder. 2. Science Fiction and Selective Tradition Academic Definitions of Science Fiction. Modernism, Modernity and Science Fiction. Non-Academic Definitions of Science Fiction. Rethinking Genre. Rethinking Tradition. 3. Science Fiction and the Cultural Field From the French Literary Field to the Global Science Fiction Field. Ideas and Effects. Science Fiction as Drama. Science Fiction as Prose. The Restricted Economy and Institutionalised Bourgeois Art. 4. Radio Science Fiction and the Theory of Genre Cultural Materialism as Method. Radio Technology and Science Fiction. Radio Science Fiction Forms: Three Texts. Radio Institutions. 5. Science Fiction, Utopia and Fantasy The North American Argument. The European Argument. Science Fiction and Fantasy. Utopianism in Popular Science Fiction. 6. Science Fiction and Dystopia The Antipathy to Dystopia. The Strange Case of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. Science Fiction as a Generic Context. Three Intertexts. An Ideal Typology and Some Hypotheses. 7. When Was Science Fiction? Long Histories of Science Fiction. Science Fiction and the Structure of Feeling. Form and History. 8. Where Was Science Fiction? Postcolonial Theory and Science Fiction. World-Systems Theory and Science Fiction: The Anglo-French Core. The European Semiperiphery. From the Semiperiphery to Core: North America and Japan. 9. The Uses of Science Fiction Future Stories and Futurologies. Antipodean Utopias. On the Beach and The Sea and Summer. Anticipations of Phil Chase. Afterword. Works Cited Notes Index