Environmentalism in the Realm of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature

Environmentalism in the Realm of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature
Author: Chris Baratta
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2011-11-15
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1443835420

The collection of essays titled Environmentalism in the Realm of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature discusses the environmental and ecocritical themes found in works of science-fiction and fantasy literature. It focuses on an analysis of important literary works in these genres to yield an understanding of how they address the environmental issues we are facing today. Organized into four sections titled “Industrial Dilemmas,” “The Natural World, Community, and the Self,” “Materialism, Capitalism, and Environmentalism,” and “Dystopian Futures,” the essays included also investigate the solutions that these works present to ensure the sustainability of our natural world and, in turn, the sustainability of humanity. This collection will appeal to a broad range of scholars, including those who focus their studies on one of, or all of, the following fields: Ecocriticism, Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, and Environmentalism in Literature. The essays investigate the myriad ways that science fiction and fantasy literature address environmental concerns, with a focus on the detrimental effects – on humanity, on society – of environmental destruction. With topics ranging from the dangers of industrial progress to the connection between environmental degradation and the destruction of the individual, to environmental dangers posed by capitalistic societies to ignored warnings of ecological crises, the essays each tactfully analyze the relationship between the environmental themes in literature and how readers and scholars can learn from the irresponsible treatment of the environment, while also considering solutions to this crisis that are found in science fiction and fantasy literature.

Gender and Environment in Science Fiction

Gender and Environment in Science Fiction
Author: Bridgitte Barclay
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2020-07-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1498580580

Gender and Environment in Science Fiction focuses on the variety of ways that gender and “nature” interact in science fiction films and fictions, exploring questions of different realities and posing new ones. Science fiction asks questions to propose other ways of living. It asks what if, and that question is the basis for alternative narratives of ourselves and the world we are a part of. What if humans could terraform planets? What if we could create human-nonhuman hybrids? What if artificial intelligence gains consciousness? What if we could realize kinship with other species through heightened empathy or traumatic experiences? What if we imagine a world without oil? How are race, gender, and nature interrelated? The texts analyzed in this book ask these questions and others, exploring how humans and nonhumans are connected; how nonhuman biologies can offer diverse ways to think about human sex, gender, and sexual orientation; and how interpretive strategies can subvert the messages of older films and written texts.

Challenging Anthropocentrism in Eco-Science Fiction Novels

Challenging Anthropocentrism in Eco-Science Fiction Novels
Author: Fatma Gamze Erkan
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2024-01-03
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1527567060

This book explores the relationship between humanity and nature while challenging the notion that anthropocentric behaviour causes the environmental catastrophes depicted in the four selected British eco-science fiction novels. These novels are John Christopher’s The Death of Grass (1956), J. G. Ballard’s The Drought (1965), Brian Aldiss’s Earthworks (1965), and John Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up (1972), all of which fictionalise the fact that the consequences of environmental problems can be diverse but equally serious. This book examines how even the smallest damage caused by human beings to the environment negatively affects them, other living beings, and the ecosystem they need to live and flourish. In conjunction with these, the factors and conditions that push characters in the novels to ignore and harm the environment are also scrutinised. While examining how and why the environmental problems in the novels have arisen, it is evaluated whether the authors propose solutions to these problems and, if so, what they are.

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction in Literature

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction in Literature
Author: M. Keith Booker
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2014-10-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0810878844

The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction in Literature is a useful reference to the broad and burgeoning field of science fiction literature. Science fiction literature has gained immensely in critical respect and attention, while maintaining a broad readership. However, despite the fact that it is a rapidly changing field, contemporary science fiction literature also maintains a strong sense of its connections to science fiction of the past, which makes a historical reference of this sort particularly valuable as a tool for understanding science fiction literature as it now exists and as it has evolved over the years. The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction in Literature covers the history of science fiction in literature through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries including significant people; themes; critical issues; and the most significant genres that have formed science fiction literature. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about this subject.

Environments in Science Fiction

Environments in Science Fiction
Author: Susan M. Bernardo
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2014-03-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1476615039

The all-new essays in this book respond to the question, How do spaces in science fiction, both built and unbuilt, help shape the relationships among humans, other animals and their shared environments? Spaces, as well as a sense of place or belonging, play major roles in many science fiction works. This book focuses especially on depictions of the future that include, but move beyond, dystopias and offer us ways to imagine reinventing ourselves and our perspectives; especially our links to and views of new environments. There are ecocritical texts that deal with space/place and science fiction criticism that deals with dystopias but there is no other collection that focuses on the intersection of the two.

Rediscovering French Science-Fiction in Literature, Film and Comics

Rediscovering French Science-Fiction in Literature, Film and Comics
Author: Philippe Mather
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2016-02-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1443889806

French science-fiction (SF) is as old as the French language. Cyrano de Bergerac wrote about a trip to the moon that was published back in 1657, as did Jules Verne in 1865, this time using hard, scientific facts. The first movie showing a trip to the moon was made by Georges Méliès in 1902. In the comics’ format, Hergé had Tintin walk on the moon in 1954, 15 years before Neil Armstrong. These are just a few of the many unique French contributions to SF that rightly deserve to be better known. One of the purposes of this collection is to introduce French SF to an English-speaking audience. Rediscovering French Science Fiction... first revisits proto science-fiction from authors like Cyrano de Bergerac and Jules Verne, before delving into contemporary science-fiction works from authors such as René Barjavel and Jacques Spitz. A contribution from preeminent SF author Élisabeth Vonarburg, from Québec, helps to understand the constraints and advantages of writing SF in French. A third section is devoted to French SF in movies and graphic novels, media where French creators have been recognized worldwide. This collection explores many aspects of French SF, including the genre’s deep roots in popular culture, the influence of key authors on its historical development, and the form and function of science and fantasy, as well as the impact of films and graphic novels on the public perception of the genre’s nature.

Apocalypse in American Literature and Culture

Apocalypse in American Literature and Culture
Author: John Hay
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 590
Release: 2020-12-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1316997421

The idea of America has always encouraged apocalyptic visions. The 'American Dream' has not only imagined the prospect of material prosperity; it has also imagined the end of the world. 'Final forecasts' constitute one of America's oldest literary genres, extending from the eschatological theology of the New England Puritans to the revolutionary discourse of the early republic, the emancipatory rhetoric of the Civil War, the anxious fantasies of the atomic age, and the doomsday digital media of today. For those studying the history of America, renditions of the apocalypse are simply unavoidable. This book brings together two dozen essays by prominent scholars that explore the meanings of apocalypse across different periods, regions, genres, registers, modes, and traditions of American literature and culture. It locates the logic and rhetoric of apocalypse at the very core of American literary history.

Children's Literature and the Posthuman

Children's Literature and the Posthuman
Author: Zoe Jaques
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2015-02-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1136674845

An investigation of identity formation in children's literature, this book brings together children’s literature and recent critical concerns with posthuman identity to argue that children’s fiction offers sophisticated interventions into debates about what it means to be human, and in particular about humanity’s relationship to animals and the natural world. In complicating questions of human identity, ecology, gender, and technology, Jaques engages with a multifaceted posthumanism to understand how philosophy can emerge from children's fantasy, disclosing how such fantasy can build upon earlier traditions to represent complex issues of humanness to younger audiences. Interrogating the place of the human through the non-human (whether animal or mechanical) leads this book to have interpretations that radically depart from the critical tradition, which, in its concerns with the socialization and representation of the child, has ignored larger epistemologies of humanness. The book considers canonical texts of children's literature alongside recent bestsellers and films, locating texts such as Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Pinocchio (1883) and the Alice books (1865, 1871) as important works in the evolution of posthuman ideas. This study provides radical new readings of children’s literature and demonstrates that the genre offers sophisticated interventions into the nature, boundaries and dominion of humanity.

The Trouble with Speculation

The Trouble with Speculation
Author: Christine Mortimer
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2024-10-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1529244242

Bringing together contributors from Europe, North America and Australia, this book questions the purpose and outcomes of speculation in practical settings. In the context of interrelated and complex global challenges, speculation is not just useful but necessary. The chapters in this book present a cross-disciplinary dialogue of people that are developing work in speculation and interrogates its practices and ethical and political charges. Through these discussions, the book explores the potential of speculation in addressing issues such as climate change, urban futures and new political practices.