Bücher der Reihe Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Spaces, as well as a sense of place or belonging, play major roles in many science fiction works. This book focuses especially on science fiction that includes 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.

Explores the construction of gendered heroic identity from both production and fan perspectives by applying a variety of critical lens (media, fan culture, and queer theory). In addition, fan fiction, criticism, and videos that celebrate and resist BBC SF television heroes and villains are considered.

Do you find yourself contemplating the imminent end of the world? Do you wonder how society might reorganize itself to cope with global cataclysm? (Have you begun hoarding canned goods and ammunition...?) Visions of an apocalypse began to dominate mass media well before the year 2000. Yet narratives since then present decidedly different spins on cultural anxieties about terrorism, disease, environmental collapse, worldwide conflict and millennial technologies. Many of these concerns have been made metaphorical: zombie hordes embody fear of out-of-control appetites and encroaching disorder. Other fears, like the prospect of human technology's turning on its creators, seem more reality based. This collection of new essays explores apocalyptic themes in a variety of post-millennial media, including film, television, video games, webisodes and smartphone apps.

A literary genre that pervades 21st-century popular culture, science fiction creates mythologies that make statements about humanity's place in the universe and embody an intersection of science, religion and philosophy. This book considers the significance of this confluence through an examination of myths in the writings of H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick and Frank Herbert.

One of the major figures in science fiction for more than sixty years, James Gunn has been instrumental in making the genre one of the most vibrant and engaging areas of literary scholarship. His genre history Alternate Worlds and his The Road to Science Fiction anthologies introduced countless readers to science fiction. He founded the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction in 1982. But Gunn has also been one of the genre's leading writers. His classic novels Star Bridge (with Jack Williamson), The Joy Makers, The Immortals and The Listeners helped shape the field. Now in his nineties, he remains a prominent voice. His forthcoming novel is Transformation. Drawing on materials from Gunn's archives and personal interviews with him, this study is the first to examine the life, career and writing of this science fiction grandmaster.

Provides a study of Tolkien's life and influences through an analysis of ""The History of Middle Earth"". This title presents a biography and an analysis of the major influences in Tolkien's early life. It deals with elements common to Tolkien's popular works, including cosmogony, theogony, cosmology, metaphysics, and eschatology of Middle Earth.

From wondrous fairy-lands to nightmarish hellscapes, the elements that make fantasy worlds come alive also invite their exploration and study. This first book-length study of critically acclaimed novelist Patricia A. McKillip's lyrical other-worlds analyses her characters, environments and legends and their interplay with genre expectations.

Interpreted and adapted for more than a century, H.G. Wells' texts have resisted easy categorization and are perennial subjects for emerging critical and theoretical perspectives. The author examines Wells' works through the post-structuralist philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. Via this critical perspective, concepts now synonymous with science fiction demonstrate the intrinsic relevance of Wells.

This companion to Frank Herbert's six original Dune novels provides an encyclopaedia of characters, locations, terms and other elements, and highlights the series' underrated aesthetic integrity. An extensive introduction covers themes of ecology, chaos theory, concepts and structures, and Joseph Campbell's monomyth in Herbert's narrative.

What are the greatest, most widely read, most influential, most translated and most adapted children's classics? Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and Carlo Collodi's Le Avventure di Pinocchio are candidates, and through them this book explores what it means to be transnational fantasy icons.

Offers a critical study of the fantastic religions and religious themes present in the works of selected American and Canadian writers. The aim is to reveal and investigate these authors' references to biblical tradition and Christian teachings in order to examine their overall approach to Christianity and to comment on the relationship between Christianity and the fantasy genre.

We live in an information economy, a vast archive of data ever at our fingertips. In the pages of science fiction, powerful entities - governments and corporations - seek to use this archive to control society, enforcing conformity or turning citizens into passive consumers. Opposing them are protagonists fighting to liberate the collective mind.

From the Star Wars expanded universe to Westworld, the science fiction western has captivated audiences for over fifty years. This unique collection concentrates on the female characters in the contemporary science fiction western, addressing themes of power, agency, intersectionality and the body.

Concentrating both on studies of Philip K. Dick's writing from recent critical perspectives, and on reassessing his legacy in light of his new status as a "major American author", these essays explore, just what happened culturally and critically to precipitate his extraordinary rise in reputation.

A study of French-language science fiction from Canada that provides an introduction to the subgenre known as 'SFQ' (science fiction from Quebec). It demonstrates how these multivolume narratives of colonization and postcolonial societies exploit themes typical of postcolonial literatures.

Examines how women authors have explored fantasy fiction in ways that connect with feminist narrative theories.