Author: Gary Westfahl Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 0786442972 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 291
Book Description
Essays in this volume demonstrate how science fiction can serve as a bridge between the sciences and the humanities. The essays show how early writers like Dante and Mary Shelley revealed a gradual shift toward a genuine understanding of science; how H.G. Wells first showed the possibilities of combining scientific and humanistic perspectives; how writers influenced by Gernsback's ideas, like Isaac Asimov, illustrated the ways that literature could interact with science and assist in its progress; and how more recent writers offer critiques of science and its practitioners.
Author: Kris Rutten Publisher: Purdue University Press ISBN: 1612495222 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 309
Book Description
Edited by Kris Rutten, Stefaan Blancke, and Ronald Soetaert, Perspectives on Science and Culture explores the intersection between scientific understanding and cultural representation from an interdisciplinary perspective. Contributors to the volume analyze representations of science and scientific discourse from the perspectives of rhetorical criticism, comparative cultural studies, narratology, educational studies, discourse analysis, naturalized epistemology, and the cognitive sciences. The main objective of the volume is to explore how particular cognitive predispositions and cultural representations both shape and distort the public debate about scientific controversies, the teaching and learning of science, and the development of science itself. The theoretical background of the articles in the volume integrates C. P. Snow's concept of the two cultures (science and the humanities) and Jerome Bruner's confrontation between narrative and logico-scientific modes of thinking (i.e., the cognitive and the evolutionary approaches to human cognition).
Author: John Rieder Publisher: Wesleyan University Press ISBN: 0819577170 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 219
Book Description
A fresh approach to the history and shape of science fiction In Science Fiction and the Mass Cultural Genre System, John Rieder asks literary scholars to consider what shape literary history takes when based on a historical, rather than formalist, genre theory. Rieder starts from the premise that science fiction and the other genres usually associated with so-called genre fiction comprise a system of genres entirely distinct from the pre-existing classical and academic genre system that includes the epic, tragedy, comedy, satire, romance, the lyric, and so on. He proposes that the field of literary production and the project of literary studies cannot be adequately conceptualized without taking into account the tensions between these two genre systems that arise from their different modes of production, distribution, and reception. Although the careful reading of individual texts forms an important part of this study, the systemic approach offered by Science Fiction and the Mass Cultural Genre System provides a fundamental challenge to literary methodologies that foreground individual innovation.
Author: Iain Banks Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 0743421922 Category : Caste Languages : en Pages : 500
Book Description
Eight hundred years after the most horrific battle of the Idiran war, light from its world-destroying detonations is about to reach the Masaq Orbital, home to the Culture. Major Quilan has supposedly come to take the exiled Composer Ziller back to their war-ravaged home world, Chel. But despite the major's civilized veneer, his true mission may be the death and destruction of an entire civilization.
Author: Carl Silvio Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 1476611068 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 245
Book Description
Released in May 1977, the original Star Wars movie inaugurated the age of the movie blockbuster. It also redefined the use of cinematic special effects, creating a new textual universe that now stretches through three decades, two trilogies and generations of fascinated viewers. The body of critical analysis that has developed from this epic focuses primarily on the Star Wars universe as a contemporary myth. However, like any fiction, it must also be viewed—and consequently analyzed—as a product of the culture which created it. The essays in this book analyze the Star Wars trilogies as a culturally and historically specific phenomenon. Moving away from the traditional myth-based criticism of the films, the essayists employ a cultural studies model to examine how this phenomenon intersects with social formations such as economics, technology, race and gender. Critical approaches are varied and include political and economic analysis informed by feminism, contemporary race theory, Marxism, new media studies and post-humanism. Among the topics covered are the connections between the trilogies and our own cultural landscape; the problematic issues of race and gender; and the thematic implications of Lucas’ presentation of technology. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
Author: George Edgar Slusser Publisher: University of Georgia Press ISBN: 9780820317267 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 236
Book Description
Through case studies, other contributors relate science fiction to other forms of "underground" literature, consider the continual cycle of illegitimate art replacing legitimate art, look at young readers of science fiction, chart the rising and falling "stock" of science fiction writers' reputations, and consider the influence of editors on a writer's work.
Author: Joseph W. Slade Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell ISBN: Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 336
Book Description
Contains--under these topical heads: The texts of nature; Quests for paradigms; Literary responses to science and technology (the latter with these sub-heads: Newtonian mechanics and the romantic rebellion; The mataphorical allure of modern physics; Imaginative responses to mechanization; Scientists and inventors as literary heroes)--a total of fourteen essays by diverse academic authors. Good stuff, carefully edited and well produced, likely to appeal most strongly to college and university faculty who have already on their syllabi the name of C.P. Snow. (NW) Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Author: Susan Schneider Publisher: John Wiley & Sons ISBN: 1118922611 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 439
Book Description
Featuring numerous updates and enhancements, Science Fiction and Philosophy, 2nd Edition, presents a collection of readings that utilize concepts developed from science fiction to explore a variety of classic and contemporary philosophical issues. Uses science fiction to address a series of classic and contemporary philosophical issues, including many raised by recent scientific developments Explores questions relating to transhumanism, brain enhancement, time travel, the nature of the self, and the ethics of artificial intelligence Features numerous updates to the popular and highly acclaimed first edition, including new chapters addressing the cutting-edge topic of the technological singularity Draws on a broad range of science fiction’s more familiar novels, films, and TV series, including I, Robot, The Hunger Games, The Matrix, Star Trek, Blade Runner, and Brave New World Provides a gateway into classic philosophical puzzles and topics informed by the latest technology
Author: Gary Westfahl
Author: C. P. Snow
Author: Camille Bacon-Smith
Author: Kris Rutten
Author: John Rieder
Author: Iain Banks
Author: Carl Silvio
Author: George Edgar Slusser
Author: Joseph W. Slade
Author: Susan Schneider