| Science Fiction Studies |
Article Index for Science Fiction |
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Information AboutScience Fiction Studies |
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Science fiction studies is the common name for the Academic Discipline that studies and researches the history, culture, and works of Science and, more broadly, Speculative Fiction . HISTORY OF THE FIELD AS A DISCIPLINE The modern field of science fiction studies is closely related to popular culture studies, a subdiscipline of Cultural Studies , and Film and Literature studies. Because of the ties with Futurism and Utopian works, there is often overlap with these fields as well. The field also has spawned subfields, such as Feminist Science Fiction studies. However, the field's roots go back much further, to the earliest commentators who studied representations of the sciences in the arts and literature, and explorations of utopian and social reform impulses in fantastic and visionary works of art and literature. Modern science fiction criticism may have started with Dorothy Scarborough , who in 1917 included a chapter on "Supernatural Science" in her doctoral dissertation, published as ''The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction''.Dorothy Scarborough, "Supernatural Science," in ''The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction''. New York: Putnam, 1917, pp. 251-280. See also the Scarborough entry in "Horny Toads and Ugly Chickens: A Bibilography on Texas in Speculative Fiction," by Bill Page, Texas A&M Cushing Library, 2001. As the Pulp era progressed, shifting science fiction ever further into popular culture, groups of writers, editors, publishers, and fans (often scientists, academics, and scholars of other fields) systematically organized publishing enterprises, conferences, and other insignia of an academic discipline. Much discussion about science fiction took place in the letter columns of early SF Magazines and Fanzines , and the first book of commentary on science fiction in the US was Clyde F. Beck's ''Hammer and Tongs'', a Chapbook of essays originally published in a fanzine.Peter Nicholls, "Critical and Historical Works About SF," in Clute, John , Peter Nicholls , eds., '' The Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction '' (St. Martin's Press, 1995) ISBN 0-312-13486-X. The 1940s saw the appearance of three full-scale scholarly works that treated science fiction and its literary ancestors: Philip Babcock Gove's ''The Imaginary Voyage in Prose Fiction'' (1941), J. O. Bailey's ''Pilgrims Through Space and Time'' (1948), and Marjorie Hope Nicholson's ''Voyages to the Moon'' (1949).Nichols, "Critical and Historical Works About SF"; and "Chronological Bibliography of Science Fiction History, Theory, and Criticism" at http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/biblio.htm in 1953. The first regular, for-credit courses were taught by Mark Hillegas (at Colgate ) and H. Bruce Franklin (at Stanford ) in 1961."SF in the Classroom" in the Clute & Nicholls ''Encyclopedia'' During the 1960s, more science fiction scholars began to move into the academy, founding Academic Journal s devoted to the exploration of the literature and works of science fiction.See, e.g., Science-Fiction Studies , founded 1973. The explosion of Film Studies and Cultural Studies more broadly granted the nascent discipline additional credibility, and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, mainstream scholars such as Susan Sontag See, e.g., Susan Sontag, "The Imagination of Disaster," in ''Against Interpretation'' (New York: Farrar, 1966), pp. 209-225. turned their critical attention to science fiction. DEGREE-GRANTING PROGRAMS
SIGNIFICANT SF SCHOLARS (IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER)
PRINCIPAL JOURNALS, CONFERENCES, AND SOCIETIES Societies:
General journals:
Review journals:
SIGNIFICANT WORKS
SIGNIFICANT RESEARCH RESOURCES, DATABASES, AND ARCHIVES
Popular culture collections with strong SF
Important databases and portals
NOTES GENERAL REFERENCES |
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