Marija Dalbello

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Image credit Victor GAD
Marija Dalbello Science fiction / Fantasy SF
Speculative fiction
Rutgers School of Communication, Information, and
Library Studies dalbello_at_scils.rutgers.edu http//
www.scils.rutgers.edu/dalbello
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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)
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SF / Fantasy _____________________________________
__ The literature of what if Fantasy, SF,
horror closely linked (imagination) 1818 Mary
Shelleys Frankenstein (E.A. Poe, Jules Verne,
H.G. Wells 19th centyr SF term 1929 (by 1930s
commonly accepted) The Golden Age of science
fiction (1930s-1940s) celebrates the world of
(patriarchal) technological modernity focus on
the mechanical, on how machines would change the
world technology was the essence, the
characterization the plot is subsidiary 1950s
interest in alien contact (society began to
wonder whos out there gives rise to BEM
bug-eyed monster stories) 1960s the 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) 1970s the feminist utopia/
dystopia 1980s Cyberpunk technology was
portrayed as being limited 1990s scientific
advances in nanotechnology, AI, bioengineering
became a visible force in the field
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SF / Fantasy _____________________________________
__ Difficult truths can sometimes only be told
through the medium of fantasy. (Goldstein, in
Herald 2000, 267)
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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