The relation of science fiction and the utopian tradition has been a point of some contention among critics of either field—Darko Suvin, for example, famously argued that “utopia is not a genre but the sociopolitical subgenre of science fiction” (61). And Peter Fitting refutes Suvin’s simplistic conflation, instead arguing “that there is not a necessary […]
Fallout: Post-Apocalypse for the Atomic Golden Age From its inception, the Fallout series has been entrenched in feelings of nostalgia for an era long gone, or one might argue, for an era once imagined to come. In effect, Fallout is a case of “retrofuturism,” a cultural form that “highlights nostalgia, irony, and time-bending dislocation … engaging the […]
Deus Ex: Cyberpunk and the Choice of a Transhuman Future With the rapid changes in computer technology, popular discourses reflect an anxiety about the future and the role of humans in the world. Cyberpunk—a mode of science fiction highlighting information technologies and degrees of social disorder—in some ways captures these anxieties. The societies imagined by […]
1. Background 1.1 Terminologies and Definitions As with any literary genre, a clear-cut definition of cyberpunk is hard to find. Among scholars of science fiction (sf), many differentiate between a historical group of writers who met at the beginning of the 1980s, were originally known as ‘the Movement,’ and consisted of William Gibson (*1948), Bruce […]
Mit seinem Buch Deleuze and Baudrillard zeichnet Sean McQueen Bewegungen kritischer Positionen nach, wie sie in den letzten Jahrzehnten die intellektuelle Auseinandersetzung mit zeitgenössischer Kultur bestimmt haben. Seine Arbeit fokussiert dabei eine Entwicklung, die am besten anhand der sie eingrenzenden Pole beschrieben ist – er selbst formuliert sie als ein „cognitive mapping of the transition from […]
As a scholar of zombie fiction, one tends to get hung up on one’s specific method of dealing with the shambling dead – prefer a gun, a baseball bat or rather a sword? Academically speaking that means that once you look at the hordes of undead roaming in popular culture with an eye for consumerism, […]
At the heart of Heike Endter’s 2009 dissertation, published in 2011 as Ökonomische Utopien und ihre Bilder in Science-Fiction-Filmen, lies the assumption that art history, as a field and with its unique methodology, can provide an insight into film studies that has not yet been discovered and made accessible. Interestingly, Endter seeks to argue this […]
Fantasy – ein Genre in der Literatur, das oft nicht ernst genommen wird, dem Eskapismus vorgeworfen wird genauso wie die Verklärung der Realität. Aber ist das tatsächlich so, oder verstecken sich die Fantasy-Kritiker nur vor einer einer unbequemen Wahrheit?
In der Literatur ist die Fantastik mittlerweile zu einem festen und ziemlich zentralen Bestandteil des Mainstream geworden – kaum eine Liste beliebter Bücher kommt ohne Fantasy, Science Fiction oder Horror aus, und auch in Promi-Kreisen ist das Nerdtum nicht mehr verschrien. Schaut man sich dann die Bemühungen von Initiativen wie dem Phantastik-Autoren-Netzwerk PAN an, dann […]
Autoren: Dana Frei und Lars Schmeink “Thanks to global dissemination and the cross-media phenomenon that drives entertainment media, the hero in his or her superheroic dimension has reached a level of popularity never witnessed before,” Angela Ndalianis states, referring to the proliferation of superheroes in film, TV series, games, theme parks and, of course, comic […]