Critical Theory and Science Fiction

Critical Theory and Science Fiction
Author: Carl Freedman
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2013-09-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0819574546

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Selected by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Book of the Year. This innovative cultural critique offers valuable insights into science fiction, thus enlarging our understanding of critical theory. Carl Freedman traces the fundamental and mostly unexamined relationships between the discourses of science fiction and critical theory, arguing that science fiction is (or ought to be) a privileged genre for critical theory. He asserts that it is no accident that the upsurge of academic interest in science fiction since the 1970s coincides with the heyday of literary theory, and that likewise science fiction is one of the most theoretically informed areas of the literary profession. Extended readings of novels by five of the most important modern science fiction authors illustrate the affinity between science fiction and critical theory, in each case concentrating on one major novel that resonates with concerns proper to critical theory. Freedman's five readings are: Solaris: Stanislaw Lem and the Structure of Cognition; The Dispossessed: Ursula LeGuin and the Ambiguities of Utopia; The Two of Them: Joanna Russ and the Violence of Gender; Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand: Samuel Delany and the Dialectics of Difference; The Man in the High Castle: Philip K. Dick and the Construction of Realities.

Science Fiction

Science Fiction
Author: Patrick Parrinder
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2014-09-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1317872665

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First published in 1979. This volume presents Science Fiction as a coherent system, not as a collection of facts or random sequence of individual voices. The contributors are concerned with less with surveying the bare facts of the genre than with interpretating their significance. They attempt to establish the common properties of Science Fiction writing whether in the treatment of a theme or in SF of a given period or nationality.

Exploring the Limits of the Human through Science Fiction

Exploring the Limits of the Human through Science Fiction
Author: Gerald Alva Miller Jr.
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2012-12-04
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1137330791

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Through its engagement with different kinds of texts, Exploring the Limits of the Human through Science Fiction represents a new way of approaching both science fiction and critical theory, and its uses both to question what it means to be human in digital era.

Critical Theory and Science Fiction

Critical Theory and Science Fiction
Author: Vivian E. Jackson
Publisher: Hillcrest Publishing Group
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2010-07
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1936400073

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"Critical Theory and Science Fiction: A Lens Into Technology in Education," looks to show that reflection is our quantum leap into a past that provides the reasons for our challenges in education. Through reflection, we gain perspectives on how to best change a future that will ultimately become our history. "This text is an important and much-needed contribution to the study and analysis of the issues of technology and science fiction and their relationship to curriculum as well as the broader field of education. Jackson develops a critical theory of technology. Rather than simply accepting technological advancements, the work demystifies and questions the impacts of technology in new, critical, insightful, and exciting ways. A must-read." -William M. Reynolds, Georgia Southern University, "Curriculum: A River Runs Through It" "Using science fiction as a way to look at contemporary education philosophy and practice would seem an unlikely technique, and so it is likely to succeed. Science fiction remains remarkably advanced over the education establishment, which like the military is always getting ready to deal with the previous situation. Utopia-Gr., u-topos-means nowhere, or, moving the space, now here. Only the arts anticipate the future because only the artist lives in the present." -Eric McLuhan, "The Role of Thunder in Finnegans Wake, and Laws of Media: The New Science" (Marshall McLuhan, co-author)

Speculations on Speculation

Speculations on Speculation
Author: James E. Gunn
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2005
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780810849020

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Science fiction is a field of literature that has great interest and great controversy among its writers and critics. This book examines the roots, history, development, current status, and future directions of the field through articles contributed by well-respected science fiction writers, teachers, and critics. This book can be used as a textbook for courses in theory as well as courses in science fiction literature and science fiction writing.

Practicing Science Fiction

Practicing Science Fiction
Author: Karen Hellekson
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 078645783X

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Drawn from the Science Fiction Research Association conference held in Lawrence, Kansas, in 2008, the essays in this volume address intersections among the reading, writing, and teaching of science fiction. Part 1 studies the teaching of SF, placing analytical and pedagogical research next to each other to reveal how SF can be both an object of study as well as a teaching tool for other disciplines. Part 2 examines SF as a genre of mediation between the sciences and the humanities, using close readings and analyses of the literary-scientific nexus. Part 3 examines SF in the media, using specific television programs, graphic novels, and films as examples of how SF successfully transcends the medium of transmission. Finally, Part 4 features close readings of SF texts by women, including Joanna Russ, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Octavia E. Butler.

Science Fiction, Critical Frontiers

Science Fiction, Critical Frontiers
Author: NA NA
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2014-01-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781349628346

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Science fiction has recently been identified as providing the narrative paradigm for postmodernity. This volume of essays combines theoretical discussions of the nature of science fiction, with specific studies of utopian and dystopian narratives. Alongside of this, the essays here address feminist and African American issues, the envisioning of radical alternative realities and futures, cyborgs, cyberpunk and cyber-space, age and aging, hybridity and monstrosity, and contemporary society and the postmodern condition.

Introducing Critical Theory

Introducing Critical Theory
Author: Stuart Sim
Publisher: Totem Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2004
Genre: Critical theory
ISBN: 9781840465884

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"The last few decades have seen an explosion in the production of critical theories, with deconstructionists, poststructuralists, postmodernists, second-wave feminists, new historicists, cultural materialists, postcolonialists, black critics and queer theorists, among a host of others, all vying for our attention." "The world around us can look very different depending on the critical theory applied to it. This vast range of interpretations can leave one feeling confused and frustrated. Introducing Critical Theory provides a route through the tangled jungle of competing theories. It provides a context for these recent developments by situating them within the longer-term tradition of critical analysis going back to the rise of Marxism. The essential methods and objectives of each theoretical school are presented in an incisive and accessible manner. Special attention is paid to recurrent themes and concerns that have preoccupied a century of critical theoretical activity."--BOOK JACKET.

The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction

The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction
Author: Edward James
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2003-11-20
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780521016575

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Table of contents

The Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction

The Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction
Author: Mark Bould
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2011-02-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1136820418

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The Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction provides students with an accessible overview of the genre that explores how it emerged through competing, multifarious versions and the struggle to define its limits. Discussing the place of key works and looking forward to the future of the genre, this book is the ideal starting point for students and all those seeking a better understanding of science fiction.