Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Speculative Fiction

Abstract

The dividing lines between fantasy, science fiction, and speculative fiction are fluid. One way to distinguish between them is to say that science fiction speculates about the future, or scientific and social progress, or life on other planets, while fantasy speculates about mythic realms. Speculative fiction is most widely used as a blanket term that covers not only fantasy and science fiction, but also alternative histories – which speculate about the repercussions of a single change in our historical time line – and magic realism – which speculates about mythic realms as fantasy does, but which does not distinguish between fantastic and realist elements within a single work. While speculative fiction is usually associated with England and the United States, works in the genre were written in the “settler colonies” of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as early as the late nineteenth century. All three countries, especially Canada, have continued to make significant contributions to the genre throughout the twentieth century, and writers from South Asia, the Caribbean, and, to a lesser extent, Africa added important voices and new directions to the genre in the latter part of the century.