University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 5-2014 You Can't Get There from Here: Movement SF and the Picaresque Robert Glen Wilson University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons, and the Modern Literature Commons Recommended Citation Wilson, Robert Glen, "You Can't Get There from Here: Movement SF and the Picaresque" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 2337. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2337 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact
[email protected],
[email protected]. You Can’t Get There from Here: Movement SF and the Picaresque You Can’t Get There from Here: Movement SF and the Picaresque A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English By Robert G. Wilson Campbellsville University Bachelor of Arts in English and History, 1999 Western Kentucky University Master of Arts in American Literature, 2002 May 2014 University of Arkansas This dissertation is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council. ______________________________________ Dr. M. Keith Booker Dissertation Director ______________________________________ ____________________________________ Dr. Robert Cochran Dr. William A. Quinn Committee Member Committee Member ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the crisis of authenticity in postmodern culture and argues that contemporary science fiction, specifically the subgenre of Movement SF, has evolved a unique answer to this crisis by adopting, perhaps spontaneously, the picaresque narrative structure.