Science Fiction: one universe?
Book to be edited by Nick Heffernan and Lorna Jowett.
Deadline for Abstracts - December 15, 2004
Having received preliminary interest from a publisher, we invite chapter proposals or already completed essays for a collection focusing on the range of different media within science fiction (film, television, literature, comics/ graphic novels, computer games).
Science fiction has been examined in some detail from various perspectives but rarely with a holistic view. A large number of universities offer classes in science fiction, and these classes often look at more than one of the media mentioned above. Consumers of science fiction are likely to be familiar with the genre from more than one of these media. Film, literature, television shows, comic books and computer games inform us about what science fiction is and what it can do. In this book we propose to examine science fiction across these different media in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the genre and the ways it interacts through these forms.
Some questions we envisage the volume addressing include:
* How is science fiction identified across these different media? How do they interact?
* How do fans construct the genre from the different media?
* Does the academy construct the genre from these different media or does it seek to keep them separate?
* Is there a significant disjunction between sci-fi and sf? How do issues of quality affect science fictions?
* Are the major tropes of science fiction constructed or represented differently within these different media?
* How do thematic areas compare across different formats or genres?
* Are, for example, class, race, sexuality, or heroism, romance and science constructed similarly or differently across different formats?
* What distinguishes the treatment of such themes in closed, short narrative (stand-alone film or novel) as opposed to their treatment in serial, developing narrative (comic book, television show, series of novels)?
* How do varying emphases on narrative and/or spectacle (according to format) affect science fictions?
* What advantages and disadvantages are there in these varying formats for the messages of science fiction? Does the range of formats provide limitations or new departures?
Contributors might wish to address debates about what science fiction is,
what it is used for, and by whom. We particularly welcome papers that
examine more than one format, that explore the difficulties in integrating
different formats, or that reflect on how science fiction is used in the
academy.
Essay abstracts of 500 words, or completed papers of 5-6,000 words, plus a
brief CV should be forwarded by 15 December 2004 to BOTH editors:
* Nick Heffernan, nick.heffernan_at_northampton.ac.uk
* Lorna Jowett, lorna.jowett_at_northampton.ac.uk
