Contents
A
Critical Glossary of Terms
Science Fiction or Fantasy?
Elements of Science Fiction
Formal Definitions of Science Fiction
A Sense of Wonder
| "Science fiction is what you find on the shelves in the library marked science fiction."--George Hay | ||
| Science fiction is "what we mean when we point to it."--Editors of Algol | ||
| "Hard to define abstractly, science fiction is instantly recognizable on the printed page."--Carlos Clarens (Sobchack 19-20) | ||
| There is some truth to these definitions. Science fiction can be said to be, in part, a creature of publishers' categories. | ||
| Literary lights such as Kurt Vonnegut and Margaret Atwood and popular authors such as Michael Crichton write science fiction that is marketed as mainstream literature. Readers who would never deign to pick up Asimov or Heinlein enjoy novels such as Cat's Cradle, The Handmaid's Tale, and Jurassic Park. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a pure fantasy novel about a boy learning to be a wizard, won the Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2001. |
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| All of these novels plus works of magical realism such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, as well as science fiction, horror, and fantasy novels belong to a broad genre of fiction known as literature of the fantastic. | ||
| A genre (from the French for "type") is a category of literature. Genre can indicate the form of the literature (e.g., epic, novel, short story, poem, play) or the subject matter and approach to literature (e.g., tragedy, comedy, romance). Within a genre can be many subgenres. For example, the genre of fiction can include historical fiction, romance, westerns, thrillers, mysteries, etc. |
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| Before we look at literature of the fantastic and specifically at science fiction, let's first come to an understanding of some of the terms commonly used in any critical discussion of literature. | ||
| Next Page: A Critical Glossary of Terms |
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| SciFiGuide © 2002 Agatha Taormina Last Revised: October 26, 2003 |