Science Fiction/Fantasy

Catalog description

“Everything is becoming science fiction,” wrote J.G. Ballard in 1971. “From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th century.” What has been the role of speculative and fantastic media in anticipating and articulating social change? How have creators in science fiction and fantasy used the relative safety of these genres’ unreal situations to comment on very real crises in politics, identity, economics, ecology and war? How have science fiction and fantasy provided a space for reflection upon and resistance to dominant ideologies, and where have they served instead to reproduce and augment such powers? What role does the imagination of improbable and impossible worlds play in contemporary life? Content may range from surveys of different periods in the history of science fiction and fantasy to focused study of particular themes, subgenres and authors.