Considers the development of science fiction for children and teens between 1950 and 2010, exploring why it differs from science fiction aimed at adults. This book sheds light on changing attitudes toward children and teenagers, toward science education, and toward the authors' expectations and sociological views of their audience.

A study of French-language science fiction from Canada that provides an introduction to the subgenre known as 'SFQ' (science fiction from Quebec). It demonstrates how these multivolume narratives of colonization and postcolonial societies exploit themes typical of postcolonial literatures.

Analyzes Donaldson's role as a modern writer who uses the fantasy genre to discuss situations and predicaments germane to the modern world. This book provides the reader with a discussion about the need for imagination, responsibility and acceptance to resolve such problems as alienation, pollution, disease and despair.

Contains essays that demonstrate how science fiction can serve as a bridge between science and the humanities. This book shows how early writers like Dante and Mary Shelley revealed a gradual shift toward a genuine understanding of science.

Though animal stories and fables stretch back into the antiquity of ancient India, Persia, Greece and Rome, the reasons for writing them and their resonance for readers (and listeners) remain consistent to the present. This work argues for their essential roles as sources of amusement and instruction, as well as being profoundly unsettling. Authors as diverse as Tolkien, Freud, Voltaire, Bakhtin, Cordwainer Smith, Karel Capek, Vladimir Propp, and many more are discussed in relation to their work in the realm of the animal fable.

The first book-length treatment of Le Guin's feminism, this text offers a career-spanning look at her engagement with modern gender theory and practice. During the 1970s, Le Guin experienced a paradigm shift to feminism, a change which had profound effects on her work. This critical examination explores the masculinist nature of her early writing and how her work changed both thematically and aesthetically as a result of her newfound feminism. Of particular interest is her later phase, wherein Le Guin transitions to a more inclusive post-feminism, privileging unity and balance over...

A collection of essays which provide an interpretive framework for understanding the continually developing forms and genres of television drama.

This text argues that utopian stories should be treated as literary texts, not as blueprints for a human community. Thomas More's Utopia, H.G. Well's A Modern Utopia, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars are examined as texts representative of utopianism during specific historical periods--Provided by publisher.

The 14 essays in this volume explore Stephenie Meyer's wildly popular Twilight series in the contexts of literature, religion, fairy tales, film, and the gothic. Several contributors examine Meyer's emphasis on abstinence, considering how, why, and if the author's Mormon faith has influenced the series' worldview. Others look at fan involvement in the Twilight world, focusing on how the series' avid following has led to an economic transformation in Forks, Washington, the real town where the fictional series is set. Other topics include Meyer's use of Quileute shape-shifting legends;...

Following the Second World War, the Fleuve Noir publishing house published popular American genre fiction in translation for a French audience. Anticipation was an imprint of Fleuve Noir, specializing in science fiction. This critical text examines in ideological terms eleven writers who published under the Anticipation imprint. Anticipation eschewed English-translation science fiction, preferring instead French work and thus making the imprint an important outlet for native French post-war ideas and aesthetics. Careful analysis reveals the way these writers criticized mid-century notions of...