SF Studies Keywords

Professor Rodgers’ Keywords for Literary Study

SF [Definitions of SF] [History of SF as a Genre of Literature]

Genre
 [Norton LitWeb

Genre SF

Novum [sf encyclopedia]

Canon

Megatext [sf encyclopedia]

Verisimilitude

Extrapolation 

Neologism

Cognitive Estrangement

Reading Protocols

Subjunctivity

“Zero World” (the empirically verifiable properties of the world, i.e., “the real world” (Suvin))

Pulp [sf encyclopedia]

Medium / Media

Science fiction sub-genres:

Space opera
Hard sf
Steampunk [sf encyclopedia]
Cyberpunk  [sf encyclopedia]
Slipstream
Scientific romances
Horror
Fantasy
Satire

SF in the U.S. in the Twentieth Century: Four Major Eras

Pulp Era
Golden Age
New Wave
P
ost-New Wave

SF Themes: Identity/Exploration; Nature/Culture; Self/Other; Human/Machine

Gender
Time Travel
Automation
Artificial Intelligence
Dystopia
Utopia

19 thoughts on “SF Studies Keywords

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  5. Canon- is the material accepted as officially part of the story in an universe.
    Megatext- Describe the element fictional Background.
    Verismilitude- text is believable or the extent to which it imitates life.
    Novum-A new idea introduce.
    Neologisms-a newly coined word or expression.

    Character- Characters in friction can be conveniently classified as major and minor,static and dynamic.A major character is an importance figure at the center of the story action or theme.
    Plot- refers generally to what happens in the narrative in the order it happens. It is the arrangement of events that makes up a story.
    Setting- is the physical and socials context in which the action of a story occurs.
    Narrative perspective- refers to who tells the story and how it is told.
    Theme- is the central idea or meaning of a story.

  6. Subjunctivity- Samuel Delary’s says “its an tension on the thread of meaning that runs between sound image and sound image”
    Steampunk- is encouraged by the past technology during the 19th century Industrial revolution such as steam machines
    Cyberpunk- looks more ahead regarding the technology and science, for example robots
    Fantasy- creative imagination, a world of witches and fairies etc..
    Novum- referred to a theory of the future, an imagination of a distant future, something that’s different from what we have come to know in the present.
    Hard sf- Focuses more on the science and technology.
    Gender- Gender isn’t given but chosen
    Slipstream- is a mixture of different styles of writing including mainstream literary fiction and speculative fiction–science fiction, fantasy, or both.
    Space opera- A science fiction genre that’s in space, includes romance or melodramatic adventures
    Extrapolation- Assuming something from what you already know
    Verisimilitude- Appearance of truth

  7. [Elements of Fiction – from http://www.unm.edu/~hookster/Elements%20of%20Fiction.pdf%5D
    Setting – The society, time, and location of where the story and the narration is taking place.
    Characterization – Using a character to represent a role or archetype, either by their description, their actions, or their relation to other characters.
    Tone – The context of the narration that dictates whether events in the story are meant to be seen as positive, negative, or trivial.
    Theme – The combination of setting, characterization, and tone that outlines the context of the story and the author’s conveyed message to the audience
    Irony – A narrative tool. Can mean either: a) A direct reversal of expectations in how a plot is resolved (situational), b) A character’s unintended misunderstanding in what was said and what was meant (verbal), or c) an important plot element that the audience knows but a character does not (dramatic).

    [SF Terms – from https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/sciencefiction-rodgers-spring2017/2017/02/02/sf-studies-keywords/%5D
    Genre – A grand collection of works that share a common approach of utilizing certain themes or reaching an objective goal. Genre definitions are not exclusive, so variations in themes or objectives can lead to any number of sub-genres, hybrid genres, and works that “borrow elements of” a genre.
    Fantasy – A type of literary theme where characters and events that are relevant to the plot have little to no verisimilitude, requiring the audience to suspend their disbelief.
    Pulp Era – An era between the 1880s and 1940s where SF consisted of very short stories in mass publications, and themes were largely derived from fantasy and other types of fiction
    Medium – The method of communication with which an author, writer, or creator conveys a story to the audience.
    Hard SF – A SF work that either has a theme based on scientific facts, or has a plot that relies on the scientific method to support its verisimilitude.

  8. Terms of Fiction:
    1) – Neologism- creation of a new term or phrase.
    2) Slipstream- a fictional source that crosses boundaries in genre.
    3) Canon- a collection of literary source materials accepted as genuine.
    4) Satire- the use of humor and irony to criticize political and social issues.
    5) – Horror- an intense feeling of fear or disgust.

    Terms of Science Fiction:
    1) Novum- an innovation or original creation in scientific technology.
    2) Scientific Romances- late 19th century and early 20th century British science fiction stories that focus on the good and evil of advanced technology.
    3) Space Opera- a drama taking place in outer space that often consist of space warfare, extraterrestrials, romance, neologisms, and advance technology.
    4) Steampunk- fictional text that often takes place in the Victorian era and features advanced steam powered machinery and weaponry.
    5) – Cyberpunk- genre of fiction where society is dominated by computers and artificial intelligence.

  9. Terms of Fiction:

    1. Slipstream: A work of fiction that combines ideas and concepts that you would usually find in works of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Literary Fiction.
    (https://www.goodreads.com/genres/slipstream)

    2. Horror Genre: A work that was created with the intent to shock, disgust, or strike fear into the reader.

    3. Fantasy: A work of fiction that is deemed imaginary and impossible.

    4. Scientific Romances: An old fashioned term that was used during the late 19th century that was eventually replaced by the term “Science Fiction” before the end of World War II in 1945.
    (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/scientific_romance)

    5. Hard SF(Speculative Fiction): A work of science fiction that focuses on scientific advancements that most deem are feasible to accomplish.

    Terms of Science Fiction:

    1. Verisimilitude: The amount of realism associated to a story.

    2. Canon: To be generally accepted as events that actually happened. Dragon Ball Z is canon to the series, however, Dragon Ball GT is not.

    3. Cognitive Estrangement / Novum: An idea of a new machine or creation that makes the reader imagine how different the world would be if actually invented.
    (http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095622261)

    4. The Absent Paradigm: An article written by Marc Angenot, with the intent to explain how readers could interpret Science Fiction.
    (http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/17/angenot17.htm)

    5. Extrapolation: A prediction that something will happen because of the way things seem to be going: I believe that C will happen because of the way A and B happened. The student did not turn in his homework, nor was he doing good on any quizzes, so I believe that he will fail the final.
    (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extrapolate)

    • Terms of Science Fiction:

      2. Canon: To be generally accepted as events that actually happened. The show Dragon Ball Z is canon to the series because it follows the manga it is based off of: a manga is a form of Japanese comic books or graphic novels. However, Dragon Ball GT is not canon because it does not follow any manga.

  10. 1.) Neologisms: A newly created word or expression.
    2.) Megatext: A word used to describe certain things used in a piece of SF (tropes, background, etc).
    3.) Verisimilitude: The believability of something within a work of SF.
    4.) Canon: Works that are treated as genuine in relation to the canon works.
    5.) Extrapolation: It’s a hypothesis about whether something will, or eventually, happen within a SF work.
    6.) Steampunk: A piece of SF that has a historical setting with steam-powered machinery.
    7.) Cyberpunk: A piece of SF that is dominated by computer based technology.
    8.) Space Opera: A novel, movie, or tv program set in space.
    9.) Hard SF: SF works that have more of an affinity towards actual science.
    10.) Pulp: The material some magazines/comics were printed on during the 1890s-1950s.

  11. 1. Verisimilitude: the appearance of something as the truth or close to it.
    2. Novum: the use of concepts and ideas present to support scientific innovations seen in Sf.
    3. Neologisms: a word or phrase coined by Sf authors in works produced by them.
    4. Steampunk: A subgenre of Sf that focuses on the past, particularly the 19th century.
    5. Cyberpunk: A subgenre of Sf focuses on the future where man and machine have a more symbiotic relationship.
    6. Slipstream: a style of writing using both mainstream literary fiction and speculative fiction.
    7. Megatext: describes the elaborate fictional background and conventions that science fiction literatures share.
    8. Extrapolation: the use of a known event or fact in Sf to speculate about what might happen.
    9. Subjunctivity: The relationship between something proposed/portrayed and reality.
    10. Hard Sf: Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction which emphasizes scientific accuracy.

  12. SF – Fiction based on imagined future scientific in space, earth, and other planets. Science fiction often includes time travel and life on other planets, for example, aliens and monsters.
    Canon – a collection or list of sacred books accepted as genuine
    Pulp – popular or sensational writing that is generally regarded as being of poor quality.
    Genre – a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter
    Fantasy – the imagination of things, especially things that are impossible or improbable.
    Hard Science Fiction – Focuses more on the emphasizing science and technology in the story
    Horror – an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust
    Megatext – is a term that describes the elaborate fictional background, tropes, images, and conventions that science fiction or fantasy narratives share
    Verisimilitude – the appearance of being true or real.
    Novum – the scientifically plausible innovations used by science fiction narratives.

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  14. Jonathan Samuel

    Space Opera – subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, as well as chivalric romance

    Fantasy – genre set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Supernatural ideas are also included.

    Slipstream – non-realistic fiction that crosses conventional genre boundaries between science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction.

    Novum – a term used by science fiction scholar Darko Suvin and others to describe the scientifically plausible innovations used by science fiction narratives. This means that the hypothetical ‘new thing’ which the story is about can be imagined to exist by scientific means

    Canon – material accepted as officially part of the story in an individual universe of that story.

    Pulp – inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the 1950s

    Neologisms – a newly coined word or expression

    Scientific romance – archaic term for the genre of fiction now commonly known as science fiction

    Extrapolation – a hypothesis

    Cyberpunk – sub-genre of science fiction that features advanced science and technology in an urban, dystopian future

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  17. Canon: The material accepted as officially part of the story in an individual universe of that story. The alternative terms mythology, timeline, and continuity are often used.
    Megatext: To describe the element of a fictional background
    Verisimilitude: the text is somewhat believable, as it may imitate life
    Novum: A new idea/theory of innovative science fiction inventions that may be realistic or used in real life.
    Neologisms: A made- up word that is not a part of normal, everyday vocabulary.
    Character: An essential story element is the character. Character can be defined as any person, animal, or figure represented in a literary work.
    Plot: a literary term used to describe the events that make up a story or the main part of a story. These events relate to each other in a pattern or a sequence. The structure of a novel depends on the organization of events in the plot of the story.
    Setting: The time and place in which the story takes place. The definition of setting can also include social statuses, weather, historical period, and details about immediate surroundings. Settings can be real or fictional, or a combination of both real and fictional elements.
    Narrative Perspective: The set of characteristics that determines the method an author of a story uses to relay the plot to his audience. It uses both the narrator or storyteller, and the persona from whose point of view the story is told.
    Theme: The central idea or meaning of a literary work
    Subjunctivity:The relationship to reality of what is depicted in a given fictional work
    Steampunk: A subgenre of science fiction and fantasy featuring advanced machines and other technology based on steam power of the 19th century and taking place in a recognizable historical period or a fantasy world.
    Cyberpunk: A subgenre of science fiction in a future setting that tends to focus on society as “high tech low life” featuring advanced technological and scientific achievements, such as information technology and cybernetics, used to contradict/show a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.
    Fantasy: A literary genre in which a plot cannot occur in the real world. Its plot usually involves witchcraft or magic taking place on an undiscovered planet of an unknown world.
    Hard SF: Focuses more on the science and technology, which aren’t the focus but completely weaved into the story
    Gender: male/female, typically refers only to behavioral, social, and psychological characteristics of “‘men and women.”
    Slipstream: A kind of fantastic or non-realistic fiction that crosses conventional genre boundaries between science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction.
    Space Opera: A subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, as well as chivalric romance, and often risk-taking.
    Extrapolation: An extrapolation is kind of like a hypothesis. When you make an extrapolation, you take facts and observations about a present or known situation and use them to make a prediction about what might eventually happen.
    Genre: A category of literary composition.
    Irony: A literary device that is a contrast or incongruity between expectations for a situation and what is reality. This can be a difference between the surface meaning of something that is said and the underlying meaning. It can also be a difference between what might be expected to happen and what actually occurs.
    Characterization: A literary device that is used step by step in literature to highlight and explain the details about a character in a story.
    Pulp Era: An era between the 1880’s and 1940’s where SF was consistent in stories with mass publications
    Medium: An intervening agency, means, or instrument by which something is conveyed or accomplished

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