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British Science Fiction 1990-2017: technology themed fiction in the light of the new millennium and speculative ‘Singularity’

Halden, Grace (2020) British Science Fiction 1990-2017: technology themed fiction in the light of the new millennium and speculative ‘Singularity’. In: Bradford, Richard and Gonzalez, M. and Butler, S. and Ward, J. and De Ornellas, K. (eds.) The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Literature. Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Literature Series. Wiley Blackwell, pp. 643-654. ISBN 9781119099796. (Submitted)

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Abstract

Alan Colman explores the intimate connection between fiction and science and how this unique combination can shape public perception of innovation. By ‘pulp’ fiction, Alan Colman is talking about magazines like Amazing Stories (1926), Science Wonder Stories (1929), and Astounding Stories (1930), to name just three, all of which have their fair share of cloning narratives and many of them dystopic. As the twentieth century made way for the twenty‐first century, the science fiction (SF) imaginings of malleable life gained intensive scrutiny, especially in the genre. Previously fictionalized ideas of hybrids, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology were seen as achievable, as the imagined binaries between nature/technology and artificial/real became more complicated than ever before. Adam Roberts, a prolific British SF writer and critic, suggests that the SF genre ‘is better defined as technology fiction’.

Metadata

Item Type: Book Section
Keyword(s) / Subject(s): literature, british literature, technology, fiction, science fiction
School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
Depositing User: Grace Halden
Date Deposited: 29 Jan 2021 06:10
Last Modified: 10 Jun 2025 20:21
URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/20502

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