Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-05246-8 - The Cambridge Companion to: American Science Fiction Edited by Eric Carl Link and Gerry Canavan Frontmatter More information The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction explores the relationship between the ideas and themes of American science fi ction and their roots in the American cultural experience. Science fi ction in America has long served to refl ect the country’s hopes, desires, ambitions, and fears. The ideas and conventions associated with science fi ction are pervasive throughout American fi lm and television, comics and visual arts, games and gaming, and fandom, as well as across the culture writ large. Through essays that address not only the history of science fi ction in America but also the infl uence and signifi cance of American science fi ction throughout media and fan culture, this Companion serves as a key resource for scholars, teachers, students, and fans of science fi ction. Eric Carl Link is a professor of American literature and an associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Memphis. He is the author of several books, including Crosscurrents: Readings in the Disciplines , Understanding Philip K. Dick , The Vast and Terrible Drama: American Literary Naturalism in the Late Nineteenth Century , and Neutral Ground: New Traditionalism and the American Romance Controversy . He has also published numerous articles in the fi eld of American literature. Gerry Canavan is an assistant professor of twentieth- and twenty-fi rst-century literature at Marquette University. He is the coeditor, with Kim Stanley Robinson, of Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction . He has published frequently on myriad topics related to science fi ction in such journals as Extrapolation , Science Fiction Film and Television , Science Fiction Studies , and Paradoxa. A complete list of books in the series is at the back of this book. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-05246-8 - The Cambridge Companion to: American Science Fiction Edited by Eric Carl Link and Gerry Canavan Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-05246-8 - The Cambridge Companion to: American Science Fiction Edited by Eric Carl Link and Gerry Canavan Frontmatter More information the cambridge companion to AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-05246-8 - The Cambridge Companion to: American Science Fiction Edited by Eric Carl Link and Gerry Canavan Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-05246-8 - The Cambridge Companion to: American Science Fiction Edited by Eric Carl Link and Gerry Canavan Frontmatter More information THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION EDITED BY ERIC CARL LINK University of Memphis GERRY CANAVAN Marquette University © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-05246-8 - The Cambridge Companion to: American Science Fiction Edited by Eric Carl Link and Gerry Canavan Frontmatter More information 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107694279 © Cambridge University Press 2015 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2015 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The Cambridge companion to American science fi ction / [edited by] Eric Carl Link, University of Memphis, Gerry Canavan, Marquette University. pages cm. – (Cambridge companions to literature) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-05246-8 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-107-69427-9 (paperback) 1. Science fi ction, American – History and criticism. I. Canavan, Gerry, editor. II. Link, Eric Carl, editor. PS 374. S 35 C 36 2015 813′.0876209–dc23 2014032788 ISBN 978-1-107-05246-8 Hardback ISBN 978-1-107-69427-9 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URL s for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-05246-8 - The Cambridge Companion to: American Science Fiction Edited by Eric Carl Link and Gerry Canavan Frontmatter More information Eric Carl Link would like to dedicate this volume to Bradley Link. Gerry Canavan would like to dedicate this volume to Jaimee Hills and Zoey and Connor Canavan. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-05246-8 - The Cambridge Companion to: American Science Fiction Edited by Eric Carl Link and Gerry Canavan Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-05246-8 - The Cambridge Companion to: American Science Fiction Edited by Eric Carl Link and Gerry Canavan Frontmatter More information CONTENTS Contributors page xi Preface and Acknowledgments xv Chronology xvii Introduction 1 Gerry Canavan and Eric Carl Link Part I Histories and Contexts 1 The Mightiest Machine: The Development of American Science Fiction from the 1920s to the 1960s 17 Gary Westfahl 2 Dangerous Visions: New Wave and Post–New Wave Science Fiction 31 Darren Harris-Fain 3 American Science Fiction after 9/11 44 David M. Higgins 4 Afrofuturism in American Science Fiction 58 Lisa Yaszek 5 Feminist and Queer Science Fiction in America 70 Alexis Lothian 6 The Futures Market: American Utopias 83 Mark Bould ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-05246-8 - The Cambridge Companion to: American Science Fiction Edited by Eric Carl Link and Gerry Canavan Frontmatter More information Contents Part II Media and Form 7 American Slipstream: Science Fiction and Literary Respectability 99 Rob Latham 8 Hollywood Science Fiction 111 Sherryl Vint 9 U.S. Superpower and Superpowered Americans in Science Fiction and Comic Books 125 Matthew J. Costello 10 Digital Games and Science Fiction 139 Patrick Jagoda 11 Fandom and Fan Culture 153 Karen Hellekson Part III Themes and Perspectives 12 American Frontiers 167 John Rieder 13 Science, Technology, and the Environment 179 Priscilla Wald 14 American Weird 194 Roger Luckhurst 15 After America 206 Rebekah C. Sheldon Further Reading 219 Index 229 x © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-05246-8 - The Cambridge Companion to: American Science Fiction Edited by Eric Carl Link and Gerry Canavan Frontmatter More information CONTRIBUTORS MARK BOULD is a reader in fi lm and literature at the University of the West of England and coeditor of Science Fiction Film and Television . His most recent books are Solaris (2014), Africa SF (2013), and Science Fiction: The Routledge Film Handbook (2012). GERRY CANAVAN is an assistant professor of twentieth- and twenty-fi rst-century literature in the Department of English at Marquette University. With Kim Stanley Robinson, he is the coeditor of Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction (2014); current projects include a critical monograph on science fi ction and totality, and another on the work of African-American science fi ction author Octavia Butler. MATTHEW J. COSTELLO is a professor of political science at Saint Xavier University in Chicago. For the past several years, his research has focused on Cold War culture in fi lm and comic books. He has edited symposia, including “Appropriating and Transforming Comic Books,” in Transformative Works and Cultures (Volume 13, 2013), and, most recently (with Kent Worcester), “The Politics of the Superhero,” in PS: Political Science and Politics (Volume 47.1, 2014). He has also written sev- eral articles, book chapters, and the book Secret Identity Crisis: Comic Books and the Unmasking of the American Cold Warrior (2009). DARREN HARRIS-FAIN is chair of the Department of English and Philosophy at Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama, where he teaches British and American literature from the nineteenth century to the present. He is the author of Understanding Contemporary American Science Fiction: The Age of Maturity, 1970–2000 (2005); the editor of three volumes of the Dictionary of Literary Biography on British fantasy and science fi ction writers; and the author of more than twenty articles, introductions, and book chapters on science fi ction, fantasy, horror, comics, and graphic novels. KAREN HELLEKSON has published in the fi elds of science fi ction and fan studies. She is the founding coeditor of the journal Transformative Works