The Status of Science Fiction as Literature

Janes, Adrian

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1495 Copy

Description

Title

The Status of Science Fiction as Literature

Author(s)

Janes, Adrian

Issue Date

1960

Keyword(s)

Libraries --Special collections --Science

Abstract

"In this discussion I want to say something about where science fiction has been and where it is now and then comment on where I think it stands in relation to what we ordinarily call ""good"" literature. But as in all discussions ot science fiction, it is necessary to start with some definition so you will know what I am talking about. Definitions vary widely, and any one if taken literally will lead to some contradiction. Some go so far as to include Arrowsmith, ghost stories, or the Book of Revelation. I don't include any of these. My definition is pretty standard: fiction that has in it some reasonably logical extrapolation of the science of the time, usually coupled with intent. For example, I would exclude Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, even though it has some scientific trapping, because Stevenson intended to present an allegory, and I would also exclude Gulliver's Travels. But I would include Bishop Godwin's The Man in the Moone; a Discourse of a Voyage Thither, which was published in 1638, because it is an account of space travel even though highly impractical."

Publisher

Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Series/Report Name or Number

Allerton Park Institute (7th : 1960)

ISSN

0536-4604

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1495

Copyright and License Information

Copyright owned by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1959.

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