The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction

Edward James, Farah Mendlesohn9780521816267, 0521816262, 0521016576

Science fiction is at the intersection of numerous fields. It is literature which draws on popular culture, and engages in speculation about science, history, and all varieties of social relations. This volume brings together essays by scholars and practitioners of science fiction, which look at the genre from different angles. It examines science fiction from Thomas More to the present day; and introduces important critical approaches (including Marxism, postmodernism, feminism and queer theory).

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Table of contents :
Half-title……Page 3
Title……Page 5
Copyright……Page 6
CONTENTS……Page 7
CONTRIBUTORS……Page 10
FOREWORD……Page 17
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……Page 21
CHRONOLOGY……Page 22
Introduction: reading science fiction……Page 31
NOTES……Page 41
1 THE HISTORY……Page 43
The origins of science fiction……Page 45
Experiments in science-fictional method……Page 48
The evolution of scientific romance……Page 52
Proliferation and diversification……Page 56
Origins of the science fiction magazine……Page 62
Fictional formulas in the pulp magazines……Page 64
Thought variants in the Campbell era……Page 67
Science fiction for grown-ups: the 1950s……Page 71
Emerging from the magazines……Page 76
NOTES……Page 77
3 New Wave and backwash: 1960–1980……Page 78
The New Wave……Page 79
Inner space……Page 82
Entropy machines……Page 86
Blending of new and old……Page 89
The academy discovers sf……Page 91
NOTES……Page 92
4 Science fiction from 1980 to the present……Page 94
NOTES……Page 108
Science fiction film: the first fifty years……Page 109
The 1950s boom and after……Page 115
Origins of TV sf……Page 117
From the counter-culture to Star Wars……Page 120
When it changed: Star Wars and after……Page 121
NOTES……Page 125
6 Science fiction and its editors……Page 126
The magazines……Page 127
The anthologists……Page 132
The book editors……Page 135
NOTE……Page 139
2 CRITICAL APPROACHES……Page 141
Marxism, science fiction and utopia……Page 143
New Marxist criticism in the USA……Page 146
Jameson: unimaginable futures……Page 151
Postmodernism and cyborg socialism……Page 152
NOTES……Page 153
Feminist reading……Page 155
Utopia and defamiliarization……Page 158
Feminist re-presentation……Page 161
NOTES……Page 164
Definitions……Page 167
Jean-François Lyotard……Page 169
Fredric Jameson……Page 171
Jean Baudrillard……Page 172
Postmodernism and the history of science fiction……Page 174
NOTES……Page 177
Science fiction and the idea of sexuality……Page 179
The sexual science(s)……Page 182
Queering sf……Page 185
NOTES……Page 189
3 SUB-GENRES AND THEMES……Page 191
11 The icons of science fiction……Page 193
Rockets, spaceships, space habitats, virtual environments……Page 194
Robots, androids (and gynoids); cyborgs and aliens……Page 196
Animals, vegetables and minerals……Page 199
Mad scientists and damsels in distress……Page 201
Traditions and challenges……Page 202
NOTES……Page 203
12 Science fiction and the life sciences……Page 204
Intelligence and the brain……Page 205
Mutation and evolution……Page 207
Genetic engineering……Page 210
Sexuality and reproduction……Page 211
Environment and biosphere……Page 213
NOTE……Page 215
Knowing it when we see it……Page 216
Finding the science in hard science fiction……Page 220
Politics and hard science fiction……Page 222
NOTES……Page 225
14 Space opera……Page 227
NOTES……Page 237
15 Alternate history……Page 239
NOTES……Page 248
16 Utopias and anti-utopias……Page 249
NOTES……Page 258
17 Politics and science fiction……Page 260
NOTES……Page 270
18 Gender in science fiction……Page 271
NOTES……Page 281
19 Race and ethnicity in science fiction……Page 283
NOTES……Page 292
20 Religion and science fiction……Page 294
NOTES……Page 305
Reference works……Page 306
1. The history……Page 307
Critical approaches……Page 309
Sub-genres and themes……Page 311
INDEX……Page 315