Overview

Including more than 30 essential works of science fiction criticism in a single volume, this is a comprehensive introduction to the study of this enduringly popular genre. Science Fiction Criticism: An Anthology of Essential Writings covers such topics as: ·Definitions and boundaries of the genre ·The many forms of science fiction, from time travel to ‘inner space’ ·Ideology and identity: from utopian fantasy to feminist, queer and environmental readings ·The non-human: androids, aliens, cyborgs and animals ·Race and the legacy of colonialism The volume also features annotated guides to further reading on these topics. Includes writings by: Marc Angenot, J.G. Ballard, Damien Broderick, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, Grace Dillon, Kodwo Eshun, Carl Freedman, Allison de Fren, Hugo Gernsback, Donna Haraway, N. Katherine Hayles, Robert A. Heinlein, Nalo Hopkinson, Veronica Hollinger, Fredric Jameson, Gwyneth Jones, Rob Latham, Roger Luckhurst, Judith Merril, John B. Michel, Wendy Pearson, John Rieder, Lysa Rivera, Joanna Russ, Mary Shelley, Stephen Hong Sohn, Susan Sontag, Bruce Sterling, Darko Suvin, Vernor Vinge, Sherryl Vint, H.G. Wells, David Wittenberg and Lisa Yaszek

Full Product Details

Author:   Professor Rob Latham (Retired, Independent Scholar, USA)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions:   Width: 16.90cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 24.40cm
Weight:   1.016kg
ISBN:  

9781474248617

ISBN 10:   1474248616
Pages:   592
Publication Date:   23 February 2017
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Introduction Part I: Definition and Boundaries 1. Editorial: A New Sort of Magazine, Hugo Gernsback 2. Preface to The Scientific Romances of H.G. Wells, H.G. Wells 3. On the Writing of Speculative Fiction, Robert A. Heinlein 4. What Do You Mean: Science? Fiction? Judith Merril 5. Preface to Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology, Bruce Sterling 6. Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and Postmodernism, Veronica Hollinger 7. The Many Deaths of Science Fiction: A Polemic, Roger Luckhurst 8. On Defining SF, or Not: Genre Theory, SF, and History, John Rieder Recommended Further Reading Part II: Structure and Form 9. Which Way to Inner Space? J.G. Ballard 10. About 5,750 Words, Samuel R. Delany 11. On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre, Darko Suvin 12. The Absent Paradigm: An Introduction to the Semiotics of Science Fiction, Marc Angenot 13. Reading SF as a Mega-Text, Damien Broderick 14. Time Travel and the Mechanics of Narrative, David Wittenberg Recommended Further Reading Part III: Ideology and World View 15. Mutation or Death! John B. Michel 16. The Imagination of Disaster, Susan Sontag 17. The Image of Women in Science Fiction, Joanna Russ 18. Progress versus Utopia; or, Can We Imagine the Future? Fredric Jameson 19. Science Fiction and Critical Theory, Carl Freedman 20. Alien Cryptographies: The View from Queer, Wendy Pearson 21. The Women History Doesn't See: Recovering Mid-Century Women's SF as a Literature of Social Critique, Lisa Yaszek Recommended Further Reading Part IV: The Non-Human 22. Author's Introduction to Frankenstein, Mary Shelley 23. The Android and the Human, Philip K. Dick 24. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, Donna Haraway 25. Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers, N. Katherine Hayles 26. The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in a Post-Human Era, Vernor Vinge 27. Aliens in the Fourth Dimension, Gwyneth Jones 28. Technofetishism and the Uncanny Desires of A.S.F.R. (alt.sex.fetish.robots), Allison de Fren 29. Animal Alterity: Science Fiction and Human-Animal Studies, Sherryl Vint Recommended Further Reading Part V: Race and the Legacy of Colonialism 30. Science Fiction and Empire, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay 31. Further Considerations on Afrofuturism, Kodwo Eshun 32. Indigenous Scientific Literacies in Nalo Hopkinson’s Ceremonial Worlds, Grace Dillon 33. Biotic Invasions: Ecological Imperialism in New Wave Science Fiction, Rob Latham 34. Alien/Asian: Imaging the Racialized Future, Stephen Hong Sohn 35. A Report from Planet Midnight, Nalo Hopkinson 36. Future Histories and Cyborg Labor: Reading Borderlands Science Fiction after NAFTA, Lysa Rivera Recommended Further Reading Index

Reviews

A comprehensive and scholarly exploration of sf's history as a genre of socio-political opposition. Morning Star A truly excellent and innovative selection of essays that ranges from classics to essays that should and will become classics. Farah Mendlesohn, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction Rob Latham's sagely curated Science Fiction Criticism comes as close as we can hope for to a manageable archive of indispensable works of science fiction criticism. The compelling selections are consistently in conversation with one another, revealing the dialectical process through which the critical understanding of science fiction has matured. Brooks Landon, author of Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars For both beginning and experienced researchers, this volume is a finely balanced overview of science fiction's critical conversations-and should become a fixture on every serious critic's bookshelf. For those teaching science fiction, it is indispensable Pawel Frelik, past president of the Science Fiction Research Association

A comprehensive and scholarly exploration of sf's history as a genre of socio-political opposition. Morning Star A truly excellent and innovative selection of essays that ranges from classics to essays that should and will become classics. Farah Mendlesohn, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction Rob Latham's sagely curated Science Fiction Criticism comes as close as we can hope for to a manageable archive of indispensable works of science fiction criticism. The compelling selections are consistently in conversation with one another, revealing the dialectical process through which the critical understanding of science fiction has matured. Brooks Landon, author of Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars For both beginning and experienced researchers, this volume is a finely balanced overview of science fiction's critical conversations-and should become a fixture on every serious critic's bookshelf. For those teaching science fiction, it is indispensable Pawel Frelik, past president of the Science Fiction Research Association In five useful sections, essays by science fiction authors, critics and theorists followed by well-chosen further reading lists, provide an invaluable resource for students interested in science fiction and its wider contexts. Katharine Cockin, University of Hull, UK

A truly excellent and innovative selection of essays that ranges from classics to essays that should and will become classics. Farah Mendlesohn, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction Rob Latham's sagely curated Science Fiction Criticism comes as close as we can hope for to a manageable archive of indispensable works of science fiction criticism. The compelling selections are consistently in conversation with one another, revealing the dialectical process through which the critical understanding of science fiction has matured. Brooks Landon, author of Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars For both beginning and experienced researchers, this volume is a finely balanced overview of science fiction's critical conversations-and should become a fixture on every serious critic's bookshelf. For those teaching science fiction, it is indispensable Pawel Frelik, past president of the Science Fiction Research Association

A comprehensive and scholarly exploration of sf's history as a genre of socio-political opposition. * Morning Star * This collection is a stunning mixture of the familiar and the new: a combination of what's absolutely essential for anyone embarking on research in the Science Fiction field, and pieces that almost certainly will become essential in years to come. In fact, I would wager that Latham's collection itself will become essential reading and the go-to textbook for most if not all undergraduate courses in Science Fiction in the very near future ... For those of us on the staff side of the academic divide, the collection provides access to essays that may have been on our `to-read' list for a long time, articles we have heard about but never unearthed, and introductions to areas beyond our specific sub-disciplines. This is an impressive feat of scholarship and critical historiography and an absolute boon to the field for teachers and students alike - and it's affordable to boot (well done, Bloomsbury). I recommend it unreservedly. * Fantastika * A truly excellent and innovative selection of essays that ranges from classics to essays that should and will become classics. * Farah Mendlesohn, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction * Rob Latham's sagely curated Science Fiction Criticism comes as close as we can hope for to a manageable archive of indispensable works of science fiction criticism. The compelling selections are consistently in conversation with one another, revealing the dialectical process through which the critical understanding of science fiction has matured. * Brooks Landon, author of Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars * For both beginning and experienced researchers, this volume is a finely balanced overview of science fiction's critical conversations-and should become a fixture on every serious critic's bookshelf. For those teaching science fiction, it is indispensable * Pawel Frelik, past president of the Science Fiction Research Association * In five useful sections, essays by science fiction authors, critics and theorists followed by well-chosen further reading lists, provide an invaluable resource for students interested in science fiction and its wider contexts. * Katharine Cockin, University of Hull, UK *

Author Information

Rob Latham is an independent scholar based in the USA. Winner of the Science Fiction Research Association’s Thomas D. Clareson award for distinguished service to the field, he is editor of the journal Science Fiction Studies and of The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction (2014), co-editor of The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction (2010) and author of Consuming Youth: Vampires, Cyborgs and the Culture of Consumption (2002). For two decades, he was a senior editor of the journal Science Fiction Studies.

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