This set of three previously out-of-print volumes collects together in one place key areas of research into the genre of science fiction. It critically examines science fiction, establishing its common themes and definitions, and comprehensively assesses the sci-fi world in its entirety.
Author(s): Patrick Parrinder, Lester del Rey
Series: Routledge Library Editions: Science Fiction
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 871
City: London
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Volume 1
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Contents
Editor's introduction
Part I Early landmarks: from the beginnings to 1900
The literary background to science fiction
Jules Verne: the last happy utopianist
The science fiction of H. G. Wells
Part II Two formative traditions
Utopia and science fiction
Science fiction and the scientific world-view
Part III Science fiction today: aspects of a contemporary literature
The cold war in science fiction, 1940-1960
Science fiction, religion and transcendence
Characterization in science fiction: Two approaches
1. The disappearance of character
2. The alien encounter: or Ms Brown and Mrs Le Guin
American science fiction since 1960
British science fiction
European science fiction
Notes on the editor and contributors
Index
Volume 2
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Dedication
Contents
General Editor’s Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Rise of Science-Fiction Studies
Genre Criticism
1 Working Daydreams, Workshop Definitions
The Scientific Romance
Logical Speculation: H.G. Wells
The Fiction of the Magazines
Extrapolation: Robert A. Heinlein
The ‘New Wave’
Definition by Structure
Generic Hybrids
2 The Sociology of the Genre
SF as Product
SF as Message: Readership and ‘Fandom’
Modes of Reading
SF as Document: the ‘Thinking Machine’
Literature and Paraliterature
3 Science Fiction as Romance
Contemporary Mythology and the ‘Literature of Wonder’
Functions and Formulas
Domestication
Self-Conscious Romance
4 Science Fiction as Fable
Social Criticism
Cognitive Estrangement
Utopia and Scientific Materialism
Galactic Imperialism
Liberation and Power
5 Science Fiction as Epic
SF and the Historical Novel
Truncated Epic
Scientific Anticipation
The Future Histories
6 Imitation and Novelty: An Approach Through SF Language
Authenticity and the Literary Hoax
The Language of Novelty
The Absent Signified
Intertextuality and Parody
Entropy and Disintegration
Romance, Fable, Epic and Parody: Lem’s Solaris
7 The Science-Fiction Course
The ‘Two Cultures’ Debate and the Student Revolution
Consolidation and Canon-Formation
The Strange and the Familiar
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Volume 3
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Dedication
Acknowledgments
Contents
Foreword
Part I Background
1 What Science Fiction Is
2 The Beginnings of Science Fiction
3 The Rise of the Pulps
4 The Third Source
Part II The Age of Wonder (1926-1937)
5 The Magazines of Hugo Gernsback
6 The Dawn of Astounding
7 The Crucial Years
8 The Active Fan
9 The Shaping of the Future
Part III The Golden Age (1938-1949)
10 Campbell's Astounding
11 The War and the Bomb
12 A Proliferation of Magazines
13 Science Fiction in Books
14 The Growth of Fandom
15 Reshaping the Future
Part IV The Age of Acceptance (1950-1961)
16 The Quest for Magic
17 The Big Boom
18 And the Collapse
19 The Magazine Business
20 Wider Horizons
21 FIAWOL or FIJAGH?
22 Watershed
Part V The Age of Rebellion (1962-1973)
23 The Survivors
24 The Torch Passes
25 Rebellion: The New Wave and Art
26 Enter: Academe
27 The Big Con Game
28 The Fifth Age (1974-)
Part VI Parallels and Perspectives
29 Fantasy
30 Buck Rogers and Mr. Spock
31 Glossary
32 Themes and Variations
33 Utopias and Dystopias
34 But What Good Is It?
35 Mene, Mene, Tekel...
36 After Star Wars
Appendices
Index
