Chelmsford Public Library

Contemporary speculative fiction, editor, M. Keith Booker, University of Arkansas

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

Contemporary speculative fiction

bibliography

826899276

editor, M. Keith Booker, University of Arkansas

Critical insights

"Speculative fiction has a long and progressive history, from the mythos of J.R.R. Tolkien to the radical alternativity of China Miéville and the ecofeminism of Suzanne Collins. The last twenty years has witnessed a surge in the critical reception of speculative and fiction, as more work continue to move beyond the Tolkien tradition and open up the pertinent discussion of the permeable boundary between fantasy and science fiction. Edited by M. Keith Booker, the James E. and Ellen Wadley Roper Professor of English at the University of Arkansas, this volume in the Critical Insights series addresses the crossover genre of contemporary speculative fiction through a diverse set of texts and through multiple methodologies. For readers who are studying and approaching the genre for the first time, four essays survey the critical conversation regarding speculative fiction, explore its cultural and historical contexts, and offer close and comparative readings of key texts. Readers seeking a deeper understanding of the theme can then move on to other essays that explore it in depth through a variety of critical approaches. Works discussed include Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga, Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Nalo Hopkinson's Midnight Robber, and the Harry Potter series, as well as the works of China Miéville, Lauren Beukes, and Margo Lanagan. Among the contributors are Sarah Margaret Kniesler, Janice M. Bogstad, Peter Dendle, and Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak. Rounding out the volume are a list of literary works not mentioned in the book that concern the topic as well as a bibliography of critical sources for readers seeking to study this timeless theme in greater depth. Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of "Works Cited, " along with endnotes."--Publisher's website

On contemporary speculative fiction -- Critical contexts. The critical reception of speculative fiction -- We both know they have to have a victor: a critical ecofeminist deconstruction of the battle between nature and culture in Suzanne Collins' Hunger games trilogy -- The games people play: speculative childhood and virtual culture from ender to hunger -- Feminists kick butt: feminism in the work of three urban fantasy authors -- Critical readings. Good, evil and the soul thereafter: whose dark materials in Pullman's His dark materials trilogy? -- Anglo-Saxonism in the Harry Potter series -- "A tall black boy": writing race in the world of Harry Potter -- Who's betting on The hunger games?: a case for young adult literature -- "Minister, said the girl, "we need to talk": China Miéville's Un lun dun as radical fantasy for children and young adults -- Prencks contra you: a poetry of horror, a poetry of hope in China Miéville's fantasy fictions (for young adults, &/or not) -- Postcolonial speculative fiction in Africa and its diaspora -- Black girlhood interrupted: race, imperial disruption, and adolescence in Nalo Hopkinson's Midnight robber -- "My stories are quite tame": Margo Lanagan and the critics -- Young adult zombies: Daniel Waters' Generation dead as sociopolitical intervention -- The twenty-first-century fantasy film explosion: redefining a film genre