Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars [Hardcover]

Brooks Landon is Professor of English at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Thomas Berger and The Aesthetics of Ambivalence:Rethinking Science Fiction Film in the Age of Electronic (Re) Production.First published in 2003. Brooks Landon analyses science fiction not as a set of rules for writers, but as a set of expectations for readers. He presents science fiction as a social phenomenon that moves beyond literary experience through a sense of mission based on the belief that SF can be a tool to help you think. He offers a broad overview of the genre and the stages through which it has developed in the twentieth century from the dime store novel through the New Wave of the '60s, the cyberpunk '80s, and soft agenda SF of the '90s. The writers he examines range for E. M. Forster and John W. Campbell to Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin. He also examines the large body of criticism now devoted to the genre and includes a bibliographic essay and a list of recommended titles.Preface, Acknowledgments, Chronology, Chapter 1: The Culture of Science Fiction-Rationalizing Genre, Chapter 2: From the Steam Man to the Stars, Chapter 3: Science Fiction outside Genre SF, Chapter 4: Countercultures of Science Fiction-Resisting Genre, Chapter 5: New and Newer Waves, Notes and References, Bibliographic Essay, Recommended Titles, IndexBrooks Landon analyses science fiction not as a set of rules for writers, but as a set of expectations for readers. He presents science fiction as a social phenomenon that moves beyond literary experience through a sense of mission based on the belief that SF can be a tool to help you think.US? 1995 by Twayne Publishers