American Science Fiction and Contemporary Criticism

Abstract

As a feminist critic of science fiction, I have watched the field flourish over the past three decades. When I wrote my dissertation prospectus in the 1980s, the first version was returned because of my use of the word “alien.” My dissertation director felt it necessary to remind me periodically that, “you know, none of this is real, Robin.” In the twenty-first century, academic criticism of science fiction is now respectable, and the word alien no longer problematic. Yet, not unexpectedly perhaps, science fiction criticism’s growth has led also to its fragmentation. Early science fiction criticism had a singular purpose: to champion science fiction’s status as literature. Similarly, early feminist science fiction had to demonstrate first that there was a feminist literary tradition, and second, again, to present this tradition’s literary merit. This phase was necessary, but limiting. Now, critics of science fiction have as many approaches and concerns as critics of other genres of literature. Since Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing and renowned writers such as Margaret Atwood and P. D. James, among many other luminaries, have published acclaimed works of science fiction, it is difficult for anyone but a prejudiced critic to dismiss science fiction as unworthy of study. Four new books, published by a variety of university presses and one commercial press, demonstrate the complexity and development of science fiction criticism. The breadth of approaches points to the continuing interest in and the depth of science fiction as a literary genre, and an acknowledgment that science fiction offers unique generic properties especially suitable for social analysis and literary study. These four books, though, provide readers with very different views of science fiction and literary