Kategoria BISAC: Literary Criticism >> Science Fiction & Fantasy

Many prominent science fiction writers, artists, and editors began as s.f. fans. This is the first book to survey fandom's history, manifestations, and accomplishments, including clubs, fanzines, and conventions. The 24 essays are divided into sections that consider the following: the types of people who become fans and the satisfactions they receive; the development of fandom in America; fandom in Europe and the Orient; social interactions in the form of local clubs or wider-drawing conventions; and long-term results in the form of beginning professional careers in writing or publishing,...

The authors believe transitional science fiction writer and critic Brian Aldiss represents the evolutionary leap from the older pulp/adventure science fiction to the post new wave genre. They compare his work to that of the early mainstream literary modernists. While science fiction revives the modernist spirit and possesses its ranges, the authors maintain only Aldiss has taken advantage of that potential. His works embody both the potential and contradictions in new wave science fiction. Griffin and Wingrove emphasize the remarkable continuity of Aldiss's work. Neither rebel against the...

This comprehensive volume explores the relationship between sex and the fantastic in science fiction and fantasy literature. More than a dozen scholars have contributed essays in which they discuss almost two hundred novels, short stories, tales, plays, poems, myths, and nearly one hundred authors--from Aldiss to Zelazny. The collection is divided into three main sections, the first of which is devoted to the theoretical analysis of the relationship between sexuality and the fantastic. This section contains essays on sexuality and the allure of fantasy, and sexuality and knowledge in...

The relationship between fantasy and the feminine is explored in this compelling study of women writers of the genre. Spivak provides a revisioning of such archetypes as the wizard, the hero, and the dragon, and considers why women writers are currently dominating this field formerly occupied almost exclusively by men, as well as how women readers identify with the enchanted quest. Chapters provide a feminist perspective and analysis of leading women fantasists of the past two decades as well as promising new voices.

The relationship between fantasy and the feminine is explored in this...

This interesting and unusual collection of essays explores the post-holocaust theme as it has been treated in science fiction and fantasy literature. Seen in a positive mode, this theme offers a powerful metaphor for exploring man's relationship to his social structure. The post-holocaust motif, the editor contends, literally permits the exploration of many sub-topics, such as rebirth, social patterns, evolution, devolution, entropy, history, ecology, ethics, medicine, personal values, and so on.

This anthology of twenty-five essays on fantasy in literature and film gives a striking view of the decline of realism and the penetration of the fantastic mode into the mainstream of fiction. Introduced by William Coyle's illuminating discussion of the nature of fantasy, the essays offer a wide range of perspectives. They include discussions of the creators of fantasy, fantastic creatures, fantasy and the media, the relationship of fantasy to literary tradition, and the relevance of fantasy to contemporary concerns. Among the literary subjects considered are Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein,"...

This new essay collection, edited by Jan Hokenson and Howard Pearce, explores the surprising variety of guises the impulse toward the fantastic has taken throughout history. Incorporating wide-ranging perspectives, the twenty-six essays in the volume include studies of the fantastic in literature, art, philosophy, film, psychology, drama, history, and aesthetics. Among the subjects and forms examined are allegories, animal fables, horror stories and films, and monsters and fabulous beasts. Examples are drawn from Elizabethan drama, German Romantic music, French Expressionist painting,...

Focusing on the connection between metaphor and myth, Thelma Shinn provides a methaphoric reading of fantastic literature by women that enables the reader to glimpse its underlying mythic purpose and content. She examines some seventy novels by twenty-four women writers and draws on a rich variety of secondary sources in literature, women's studies, science fiction/fantasy scholarship, and comparative mythology.

This important contribution to the study of science fiction explores the origins of the basic literary traditions of the genre. Thematic, rather than chronological, organization sets this work apart from previous analyses. The entire range of literary invention within science fiction is explored from its earliest beginnings through the past hundred years of serious development. Emphasis is on enabling the reader to perceive the evolution of science fiction as an organic whole, rather than a mere accumulation of works linked solely by popular publishing trends.

The most comprehensive work of its kind, "Great Themes of Science Fiction" looks at the most important elements of the genre and shows how each has evolved over time. Among the topics examined are aliens and alien worlds, supermen and adapted men, immortality and paranormal powers, robots and computers, space civilizations and colonies, wars on earth and in space, worldwide disasters, time travel, and parallel worlds. Selected examples of each theme are discussed together with changes that have become apparent with shifts in popular attitudes and the increasing sophistication of readers....

The twenty-four essays in this collection represent the best contributions to the Sixth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. All the essays are comparative or interdisciplinary in nature. Their foci range from the psychological aspects of art and literature, to the political implications of fiction and drama, the philosophic and linguistic dimensions of poetry, and the use of landscape in science fiction and fantasy illustration. The contributors also explore the connections between the fantastic and subjects such as religion, myth, the grotesque, the occult, Gothicism,...

This fascinating study of literary theory is the first work of its kind to examine the intersection of fantasy and postmodernism, and to analyze contemporary fantasy writers comparatively. After carefully developing working definitions of postmodernism and fantasy, the author goes on to analyze works by various postmodernist fantasy writers. Olsen's approach is eclectic, bringing to each text or textual complex those forces he feels most interestingly stir up its sediment--be they biographical, structural, psychoanalytic, philosophical, reader-response, or otherwise. Finally he argues that...

From a discussion of the problem of communicating with non-human beings and a review of popular fantastic films to an examination of stage portrayals of Dr. Frankenstein's monster, the essays included reflect and reinfoce the international appeal of the fantastic. Studies on J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Caroll, Carlos Fuentes, Edgar Allen Poe, Jorges Luis Borges, and others show how writers, artists, and directors use the impossible as a way of presenting familiar problems and themes--such as the relation of the past to the future or our attitudes towards death--in a new light. Several essays...