Cyberpunk, steampunk, and all that punk: genre names and their uses across communities

Abstract

Abstract The goal of this paper is to offer an analysis of cyberpunk, steampunk, and other genre names related via the punk element. We study the emergence and popularity of these names among science fiction fans and scholars, comparing them with “mainstream” appreciators. We carry out a corpus study that analyses data extracted from textual corpora in four languages (English, German, French, and Italian) and encyclopedias (fandom communities, e.g., Aesthetics Wiki). We show that the proliferation of punk genre names tends to be closely related to science fiction and other (fan-)fiction communities, who display an emotive and intellectual investment in punk subgenres. We propose an analysis via a frame-theoretical model that shows how cyberpunk and related genre names can describe the core narrative themes of each subgenre. We then propose that punk genre names form sets of near-synonym words via their ability to describe fictional narratives featuring anti-authoritarian protagonists across different world settings and technologies. We conclude by discussing the consequences of our account for possible theories of genres, genre names, and linguistic studies focusing on science fiction and other fictional genres.