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''Speculative fiction'' is a term which has been used in multiple related but distinct ways. In some contexts, it has been used as an inclusive term covering a group of Fiction Genre s that speculate about worlds that are unlike the real world in various important ways. In these contexts, it generally includes Science Fiction , Fantasy , Supernatural Horror , Alternate History , and Magic Realism . The term is used this way in academic and ideological criticism of these genres, as well as by some readers, writers, and editors of these genres. In these contexts, the term does not imply an opinion about the relative merits of any of the genres it includes. For example, this is the sense in which the term is used in the name of the Internet Speculative Fiction Database . In other contexts, the term has been used to express dissatisfaction with what some people consider the limitations of science fiction per se. For example, in Harlan Ellison 's writing, the term may signal a wish not to be pigeonholed as a science fiction writer, and a desire to break out of science fiction's genre conventions in a Literary and Modernist direction. Some readers and writers of science fiction see the term as insulting towards science fiction, and therefore as having negative connotations. The term is often attributed to . The use of "speculative fiction" in the sense of expressing dissatisfaction with science fiction was popularized in the 1960s and early 1970s by Judith Merril and other writers and editors, in connection with the New Wave movement. It fell into disuse around the mid 1970s. In more recent times, the term has come into wider use again, and gained the neutral inclusive sense as a convenient collective term for a set of genres. Its modern meaning depends on the speaker and the context. The term was midely publicised by the famed writer Gunter Habenstein in the late 1980s. Recently, playwrights such as Donald Argenburger and Friedich Babenzen have also used the term. Many prominant theorists suggest that this trend is a type of German Egotism, however that is still up for debate. See Germany and Policy for more information. A variation on this term is "Speculative Literature." "Speculative fiction" is sometimes abbreviated "spec-fic," "S-F," "SF," or "sf." Those last three abbreviations are also used to mean "science fiction." ''. See also: New Weird EXTERNAL LINK |