Locating Science Fiction

About this book

Locating Science Fiction is a major intervention in contemporary theoretical debates about science fiction as a literary, film and television genre and its relation to the immediately cognate genres of utopia, dystopia and fantasy. It asks and attempts to answer three general questions about science fiction: first, what was it? (a question that is addressed both positively, in relation to the genre itself, and negatively, in relation to utopia, dystopia and fantasy); second, when was it? That is, what was its time?; and third, where was it? that is, what was its geographical space? Through a comparative and historical framework that draws upon Raymond Williams' 'cultural materialism', Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of culture and Franco Moretti's application of world-systems theory to comparative literary studies, Milner delivers a critical tour-de-force that will push Science Fiction studies into new directions.