ELL3008S 2007

Bibliography

Primary Bibliography

This is an essentially random sampling in many ways - I’ve tried to choose stories and texts which make particularly interesting intersections with postmodernism, rather than sf classics. Please do not look at this as a definitive tour of the SF canon. Mostly, it’s just personal favourites that are vaguely postmodern. I have given details of the particular novel editions I'm working from, but the actual edition is not important.

The short stories are available in Short Loan for you to photocopy; some are in the photocopy cabinets, others you'll need to copy from the books. I've specified which is which below. You will need to own copies of the novels.

General SF: Short Stories

Howard Schoenfeld, "Build Up Logically." The Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus. Ed. Brian Aldiss. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973. (photocopy)

Ray Bradbury, "Usher II." The Silver Locusts. London: Corgi, 1951. (photocopy.)

Samuel R. Delaney, "Time considered as a helix of semi-precious stones." Best SF Stories From New Worlds 7. Ed. Michael Moorcock. London: Panther, 1971. (photocopy)

Eileen Gunn, "Stable Strategies for Middle Management." The Norton Book of Science Fiction. Ed. Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery. New York: Norton, 1993. (book)

Philip K. Dick, "The Electric Ant." The best of Phillip K. Dick. New York : Ballantine Books, 1977. p. 395-415. (photocopy)

Space Opera

James Tiptree Jr, "I’ll be waiting for you when the swimming pool is empty." Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year. Ed. Lester Del Rey. New York: Ace, 1972. (photocopy)

Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games. London: Futura, 1988.

Cyberpunk

William Gibson, "Burning Chrome." Burning chrome. New York : Arbor House, 1986. p. 169-191. (photocopy)
Oo, er. This is online. See here for all the stories in the anthology, including "Burning Chrome" itself.

Charles Stross, "Lobsters". The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 15. Ed. Gardner Dozois. London: Constable and Robinson, 2002. (photocopy)

Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash. London: Penguin, 1992.

(Some of these, as well as other cyberpunk texts available online at The Cyberpunk Project, see http://project.cyberpunk.ru/lib/index.html.)

Feminist Science Fiction

James Tiptree, Jr, "The Women Men Don’t See." The Norton Book of Science Fiction.Ed. Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery. New York: Norton, 1993. (book)

Joanna Russ, ""A Few Things I Know About Whileaway." The Norton Book of Science Fiction.Ed. Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery. New York: Norton, 1993. (book)

Ursula K Le Guin, "Forgiveness Day." Four Ways to Forgiveness. London: Gollancz, 1995.(book)

Sheri S. Tepper, Grass. London: Gollancz, 1989.

Secondary Bibliography

NB this is general and suggested; you will find a lot more critical material in the Speculative Fiction section of the Special Collections Department in the library; it’s below the African Studies library, accessed through an iron door on the far side of African Studies, and open until 1pm only. The librarian, Tanya, will be delighted to help you with your research.

Theories of postmodernism are relevant to this course to whatever extent you wish to apply them; there is room for rigorous theoretical analysis of the texts in terms of postmodernism, or simply as science fiction texts; it's up to you to strike the balance where you want it.

Overall, the course aims at a balance between textual analysis and theoretical background. You will be expected to do some preparation in critical background for each seminar, as well as being familiar with the actual texts we will cover. Your essays should not simply repeat the critical background, however, but should engage actively with the texts themselves.

You are not obliged to read everything on this list (other than the short exercise readings); select what is appropriate to your topic, and you may also find other relevant material in the library.

GENERAL

Brian Aldiss and David Wingrove (1986) Trillion Year Spree. London : Gollancz.

Scott Bukatman (1993) Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

John Clute and Peter Nicholls, eds (1993) The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. London: Orbit. (Reference section of the Humanities library)

Gabriel Cutrufello (2006) "Reprogramming [In]Human Reality in Philip K. Dick's 'The Electric Ant.'" Lore: Rhetoric, Writing, Culture. 6.1 (2006): 17-27. http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/drwswebb/lore/6_1/6_1_contents.html.

Ursula Le Guin (1989) The Language of the Night, revised edition. London: Women’s Press. Several articles in Section II, "On Fantasy and SF."

Patrick Parrinder (1979) Science Fiction: A Critical Guide London: Longman
-- (1980) Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching. London and New York: Methuen.

Science Fiction Studies. This is the primary academic journal of science fiction; contents pages are available at http://www.depauw.edu/sfs , and UCT has holdings until about 2000.

Adam Gopnik, "Blows Against the Empire: The return of Philip K. Dick." The New Yorker, 20 August 2007. Available online at http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/08/20/070820crbo_books_gopnik?printable=true.

POSTMODERNISM

Baudrillard, Jean (1994) Simulcra and simulation, translated by Sheila Faria Glaser. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Also available at http://www.ee.sun.ac.za/~hgibson/docs/html/Simulacra-and-Simulation.html.
(A translation of "Simulacra and science fiction" is available on the Science Fiction Studies page at http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/55/baudrillard55art.htm).

Linda Hutcheon (1988) A poetics of postmodernism: history, theory, fiction. New York : Routledge

Fredric Jameson (1991) "The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" in Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Verso.

Patricia Waugh (1984) Metafiction: the theory and practice of self-conscious fiction. London: Methuen.
-- (1989) Feminine Fictions: Revisiting the Postmodern. London: Routledge

Science Fiction Studies Vol. 55: Science Fiction and Postmodernism, available in full text at http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/covers/cov55.htm.

SPACE OPERA

Iain M. Banks (1994) "A few notes on the Culture." http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~stefan/culture.html.

Frank Cioffi (1982) "Status Quo Science Fiction" from Formula Fiction? An Anatomy of American Science Fiction, 1930-1940. Westport: Greenwood Press.

Nick Gevers. "Cultured futurist Iain M. Banks creates an ornate utopia". Science Fiction Weekly 274. http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue274/interview.html

David Horwich. "Culture Clash: Ambivalent Heroes and the Ambiguous Utopia in the Work of Iain M. Banks." Strange Horizons, September 2002. http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020121/culture_clash.shtml.

Patricia Monk (1992) Not Just "Cosmic Skullduggery": A Partial Reconsideration of Space Opera Extrapolation 33(4): 294-316.

Christopher Palmer (1999) "Galactic empires and the contemporary extravaganza: Dan Simmons and Iain M Banks." Science Fiction Studies vol. 26, March 1999.

Brian Stableford (1979) "Space Opera" in The Science Fiction Encyclopedia, ed. Peter Nicholls. New York: Doubleday.

Gary Westfahl (1994) "Beyond logic and literacy: the strange case of space opera" Extrapolation, Vol. 35 no. 3, 1994.

Gary K. Wolfe (1986) "Space Opera" in Critical terms for science fiction and fantasy : a glossary and guide to scholarship. New York : Greenwood Press (Reference section of the Humanities library)

Richmond Review interview with Iain Banks.

CYBERPUNK

Larry McCaffrey(1991) "The Desert of the Real" in Storming the Reality Studio: A casebook of cyberpunk and postmodern fiction. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Claire Sponsler (1992) "Cyberpunk and the dilemmas of postmodern narrative: the example of William Gibson." Contemporary Literature vol 33 no. 4, 1992

Various articles up at The Cyberpunk Project, http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/scifi.html.

http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html , "In the beginning was the Command Line", Neal Stephenson's rather interesting essay on the development of operating systems in modern computer tech. This is good background to some of the issues raised by cyberpunk, particularly the interface between programming and corporate power.

FEMINIST SF

Brian Aldiss (1986) Trillion Year Spree: the history of science fiction, Chapter 1. London: Gollancz. (Book in Short Loan). This is interesting because it discusses the intersections between science fiction and Gothic, which are relevant to Tepper's Grass.

Norman Beswick (1997) "Ideology and dogma in the 'ferocious' SF novels of Sheri S. Tepper." in Foundation 71, Autumn 1997. (photocopy)

Jeanne Cortiel (1999) Demand My Writing: Joanna Russ/Feminism/Science Fiction. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. (Special Collections)

Elizabeth Cummins (1990) Understanding Ursula K. Le Guin. Columbia, S.C : University of South Carolina Press.

Sarah Lefanu (1989) Feminism and Science Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Chapters on Ursula Le Guin, James Tiptree, Joanna Russ.
-- (1991) "Sex, Sub-Atomic Particles and Sociology." In Where No Man Has Gone Before: Women and Science Fiction, ed Lucie Armitt. New York: Routledge.

Brian Stableford (1995)"Frankenstein and the origins of science fiction" in Anticipations: essays on early science fiction and its precursors, ed. David Seed. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. (Photocopy on Short Loan). Gothic/sf intersections can be applied interestingly to Grass. (photocopy)

Sheri S. Tepper (1998) Locus interview, http://www.locusmag.com/1998/Issues/09/Tepper.html