Science Fiction at the 21st Century

SCIENCE FICTION AT THE 21ST CENTURY

In H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, the Time Traveler began his journey to the future on the last day of the 19th century. As we approach the end of this century (and the millennium), the history of science fiction has been written. But what of the history of science fiction criticism?

Even at the start of the 21st century, the themes of science fiction are much the same as they were from its beginnings in the 17th century--space travel, time travel, aliens and artificial life. What has changed is science fiction's critical reception.

The July 1999 issue of Science Fiction Studies tackles this in four essays that cover science fiction (sf) criticism from its origins to contemporary trends in the field. In the issue's introduction, the editors explain their mission:

Any scholarly discipline, in the course of its maturation, must develop a sense of its own history. . .In the field of science fiction scholarship, this historic impulse has chiefly expressed itself in efforts to improve our knowledge of sf's ancestry: virtually all commentators have looked back to earlier authors, and many studies of sf have taken the form of historical surveys. Today. . .the istory of SF is now pretty well understood.

In sharp contrast, however, the history of science fiction criticism is less documented or understood. . .There is no consensus as to when and where sf criticism originated, who its major figures were, or what they were talking about. . .And emerging scholars of science fiction are not always aware that they are joining a long and distinguished tradition of scholarship in the field.

"The historical survey of science fiction criticism in the current issue of Science Fiction Studies (SFS) should be a valuable resource to scholars," said Arthur B. Evans, editor & publisher, Department of Modern Languages, DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.

Evans gives credit for the project's idea to contributor Gary Westfahl of the University of California--Riverside. Also collaborating on this effort were Donald M. Hassler, Department of English, Kent State University; and SFS editor Veronica Hollinger, Cultural Studies Program, Trent University, Peterborough, Ont., Canada.

Following is a summary of the first essay, The Origins of Science Fiction Criticism: From Kepler to Wells, by Arthur B. Evans.

From Johannes Kepler's 1634 notes on his Somnium to essays by and on H.G. Wells in the early twentieth century, there have been many critical explorations of the literature we now call science fiction. The commentaries of these. . .early critics (including Sir Walter Scott on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson on the works of Jules Verne, and Verne himself on Edgar Allen Poe and fellow sf writer H.G. Wells) are of value principally because they first expressed many--if not most--of those concerns that would later become central to the sf criticism of the twentieth century: the impact of science and technology on human values, the logistics of space travel, the shifting of boundaries between the real and the imagined, the portrayal of the alien "other," and the possible futures of our world.

Contact: Arthur Evans at 765-658-4758 or at [email protected]. Or call Larry Anderson in the campus news office at 765-658-4628 or at [email protected].