Science Fiction and Postmodern Fiction: A Genre Study (American University Studies)

Book info: Science Fiction and Postmodern Fiction: A Genre Study (American University Studies) (Hardcover, 268 pages) – Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers, 1992. Language: English.

In the years after 1950 a new generation of authors began to expand the thematic scope of Science Fiction, while also extending its narrative conventions by introducing ideas from modern psychology and surrealism. Science Fiction shares the new themes - the quest of identity, the relativity of time and consciousness, the overlapping of illusion and reality - with works of modern and especially postmodern fiction. On the other hand, the innovative postmodern fiction of Pynchon, Borges, Vonnegut, and William Burroughs incorporates Science Fiction motifs, thereby blending the two genres. This book, in a series of juxtapositions and contrastive literary analyses, clarifies and questions existing genre borderlines and breaks new ground in the literary theory of postmodern fiction and of Science Fiction. Editorial Reviews Review «This is the first full-length study of the interrelations between science fiction and postmodern literature. A useful book for scholars interested in science fiction as well as scholars in avant-garde literature written from the time of Borges up to the present.» (Ulrich Broich, University of Munich)
«This book increasingly turns out to be a comprehensive reflection of our contemporary notion of reality and of the role played by the concept of fiction in the explanation of our reality. The clarity and logic of Mrs. Puschmann-Nalenz' argumentation in discussing this complex subject matter are remarkable.» (Heide Ziegler, Universität Stuttgart)
«The demanding, but nevertheless' very clearly written study is conceived as a theoretically well-founded comparison. Since also Spanish and French literary texts are analyzed a reader with interests in 'Romance literatures' and comparatistics will equally profit from this study.» (Ilse Nolting-Hauff, University of Munich)
«...a study to admire for its early identification of the interactions between a popular genre and a contemporary aesthetic which, between them, have produced so much fascinating fiction in such a relatively short span of time.» (VH, Science-Fiction Studies)
About the Author The Author: Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz is Akademische Oberraetin at Ruhr-Universität in Bochum, Germany. She received her Ph.D. in English for a dissertation on Shakespeare's sonnets. Besides writing articles for professional journals on Shakespeare's plays, Restoration Drama, Afro-American Literature, and Stephen Crane, she also published German translations of two Shakespearean plays. Dr. Puschmann-Nalenz has also taught at Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO., the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, and Texas A & M University, College Station, TX.