Marija Dalbello

Science fiction / Fantasyfiction

RutgersSchool of Communication, Information, and Library Studiesdalbello@scils.rutgers.eduhttp://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~dalbello

Image credit: Victor GAD

SF / Fantasy _______________________________________ “Science fiction allows us to understand and experience our past, present, and future in terms of an imagined future.”

(Cramer 1994, in Herald 2000, 267)

SF / Fantasy _______________________________________The literature of “what if … ” Fantasy, SF, horror closely linked (imagination)

1818 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (E.A. Poe, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells 19th centyr

SF term 1929 (by 1930s commonly accepted)

The golden age of science fiction focused on the mechanical, on how machines would change the world (technology was the essence, the characteriation and plot taking a backseat)

1950s interest in alien contact (society began to wonder who’s out there; gives rise to BEM bug-eyed monster stories)

1960s “new wave” -- non-mechanical sciences (novels dealt with psychology sociology and how humans relate to their world and to change, heralding a new wave of SF)

1980s+ Cyberpunk, in which technology was portrayed as being limited

1990s scientific advances in nanotechnology, AI, bioengineering became a visible force in the field

SF / Fantasy _______________________________________ “Difficult truths can sometimes only be told through the medium of fantasy.”

(Goldstein, in Herald 2000, 267)

SF / Fantasy _______________________________________The literature of “what if … ” Most ancient of genres (combines tales of magic with adventure)

Gilgamesh, the Odyssey, Beowulf, fairy tales (Charles Perrault 17th cent. France; the Brothers Grimm, 19th cent. Germany); 20th cent. Walt Disney and picture-book versions of fairy tales

Modern-day fantasy attributed to J.R.R. Tolkien (member of Inklings group that started in the 1930s together with C.S. Lewis)

1960s and 1970s, fantasy started appearing in paperbacks

1992 -gained professional recognition when The Science Fiction Writers of America added ‘fantasy’ in the title of their organization (both genres of speculative fiction)

Fantasy fans considered least ageist of all readers; adult / YA reading converges