Palumbo Donald E. Palumbo – författare

This critical study analyzes Stephen R. Donaldson''s role as a modern writer who uses the fantasy genre to discuss situations and predicaments germane to the modern world. Donaldson reclaims an epic vision in his Thomas Covenant novels that is lacking in most modern literature. Chapters demonstrate how this use of epic heroism helps solve seemingly insurmountable problems and provides more meaning and purpose for individuals. As Donaldson''s characters learn to transcend their world, the reader is engaged in a serious, enlightened discussion about the need for imagination, responsibility and acceptance to resolve such problems as alienation, pollution, disease and despair.

Though animal stories and fables stretch back into the antiquity of ancient India, Persia, Greece and Rome, the reasons for writing them and their resonance for readers (and listeners) remain consistent to the present. This work argues that they were essential sources of amusement and instruction--and were also often profoundly unsettling. Such authors in the realm of the animal fable as Tolkien, Freud, Voltaire, Bakhtin, Cordwainer Smith, Karel Capek, Vladimir Propp, and many more are discussed.

Fantasy writing, like literature in general, provides a powerful vehicle for challenging the status quo. Via symbolism, imagery and supernaturalism, fantasy constructs secondary-world narratives that both mirror and critique the political paradigms of our own world. This critical work explores the role of the portal in fantasy, investigating the ways in which magical nexus points and movement between worlds are used to illustrate real-world power dynamics, especially those impacting women and children. Through an examination of high and low fantasy, fairy tales, children''s literature, the Gothic, and science fiction, the portal is identified as a living being, place or magical object of profound metaphorical and cultural significance.

Following World War II, the Fleuve Noir publishing house published popular American genre fiction in translation for a French audience. Their imprint Anticipation specialized in science fiction, but mostly eschewed translations from English, preferring instead French work, thus making the imprint an important outlet for native French postwar ideas and aesthetics. This critical text examines in ideological terms eleven writers who published under the Anticipation imprint, revealing the way these writers criticized midcentury notions of progress while adapting and reworking American genre formats.

Australia has been a frequent choice of location for narratives about the end of the world in science fiction and speculative works, ranging from pre-colonial apocalyptic maps to key literary works from the last fifty years. This critical work explores the role of Australia in both apocalyptic literature and film. Works and genres covered include Nevil Shute''s popular novel On the Beach, Mad Max, children''s literature, Indigenous writing, and cyberpunk. The text examines ways in which apocalypse is used to undermine complacency, foretell environmental disasters, critique colonization, and to serve as a means of protest for minority groups. Australian apocalypse imagines Australia at the ends of the world, geographically and psychologically, but also proposes spaces of hope for the future.

Written by international experts from a range of disciplines, these essays examine the uniquely British contribution to science fiction film and television. Viewing British SF as a cultural phenomenon that challenges straightforward definitions of genre, nationhood, authorship and media, the editors provide a conceptual introduction placing the essays within their critical context. Essay topics include Hammer science fiction films, the various incarnations of Doctor Who, Stanley Kubrick''s A Clockwork Orange, and such 21st-century productions as 28 Days Later and Torchwood.

From The Prisoner in the 1960s to the more recent Heroes and Lost, a group of television series with strong elements of fantasy have achieved cult status. Focusing on eight such series, this work analyzes their respective innovations and influences. Assessing the strategies used to promote "cult" appeal, it also appraises increased opportunities for interaction between series creators and fans and evaluates how television fantasy has utilized transmedia storytelling. Notable changes within broadcasting are discussed to explain how challenging long-form dramas have emerged, and why telefantasy has transcended niche status to enjoy significant prominence and popularity.

Robert A. Heinlein''s early, juvenile science fiction novels appeared between 1947 and 1963, just as America was emerging from World War II and entering the space age, and are among his richest and most warmly remembered books. This comprehensive work defines the many names, terms and cultural references that appear in Heinlein''s juvenile novels, noting where they are found, explaining their sources and tracking their occurrences throughout the series. Of particular interest is the way in which Heinlein used science fiction to parallel the exploration of outer space with the settlement of the North American continent. Appendices provide a precis of the plot of each book, and speculate on some of the names and terms for which no specific reference could be found.

In the blockbuster film Avatar, science fiction and the technological prowess of director James Cameron meet in a heady concoction that, while visually ravishing, could easily be dismissed as "eye candy." While critics most frequently acclaimed its breakthrough 3-D technology, close scrutiny of the film raises provocative questions about the relationship between mind and body, appearance and reality. It brings into focus the relationships of humans to their technology, their planet, and each other and highlights the nature and potential of film itself. This work explores the theoretical and philosophical issues brought to bear in Avatar, exploring the spaces between human and machine; technology and nature; chick flick and action-adventure; and old-fashioned storytelling and cutting-edge technology. Central to the book''s analysis is an examination of the extent to which Avatar melds the seer and the seen, illuminating an alternative visual paradigm.

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"Science fiction" can be translated into "real unreality." More than a genre like fantasy, which creates entirely new realms of possibility, science fiction constructs its possibilities from what is real, from what is, indeed, possible, or conceivably so. This collection, then, looks to understand and explore the "unreal reality," to note ways in which our culture''s continually changing and evolving mores of sex and sexuality are reflected in, dissected by, and deconstructed through the genre of science fiction.

This book is a collection of new essays, with the general objective of filling a gap in the literature about sex and science fiction (although some work has gone before, none of it is recent). The essays herein explore the myriad ways in which authors--regardless of format (print, film, television, etc.)--envision very different beings expressing this most fundamental of human behaviors.

Lois McMaster Bujold has won a shelf full of awards--Hugos, Nebulas, and others--for both her science fiction and fantasy writing. She is one of the most respected names in the field, always delivering polished, thoughtful, and well-crafted writing. She consistently addresses great issues and problems on a human level, where they are faced by quirky, prickly, and very real characters, and her exploration of the theory of reader-response is an important critical contribution. Yet there has been a surprising dearth of serious critical writing about her output--in part because she resists neat and easy classification by genre, politics, or subject matter. This collection of fresh essays aims to correct that situation by presenting critical insights into many aspects of her writing. Attention is given to both her Miles Vorkosigan science fiction series and her Chalion and Sharing Knife fantasy series, as well as the books that fall outside these series.

This book explores representations of girlhood and young womanhood in recent English language children''s fantasy by focusing on two fantastic body transformation types: invisibility and age-shifting. Drawing on recent feminist and queer theory, the study discusses the tropes of invisibility and age-shifting as narrative devices representing gendered experiences. The transformations offer various perspectives on a girl''s changing body and identity and provide links between real-life and fantastic discourses of gender, power, invisibility and aging.

The main focus is on English-language fantasy published since the 1970s but the motifs of invisibility and age-shifting in earlier tales and children''s books is reviewed; this is the first study of children''s fantasy literature that considers these tropes at length.

Novels discussed are from both critically acclaimed authors and the less well known. Most of the novels depicting invisible or age-shifting girls are neither thoroughly conventional nor radically subversive but present a range of styles. In terms of gender, children''s fantasy novels can be more complex than they are often interpreted to be.

This collection of fresh essays addresses a broad range of topics in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, both old (1963-1989) and new (2005-present). The book begins with the fan: There are essays on how the show is viewed and identified with, fan interactions with each other, reactions to changes, the wilderness years when it wasn''t in production. Essays then look at the ways in which the stories are told (e.g., their timeliness, their use of time travel as a device, etc.). After discussing the stories and devices and themes, the essays turn to looking at the Doctor''s female companions and how they evolve, are used, and changed by their journey with the Doctor.

Reversing a common science fiction cliche, Farscape follows the adventures of the human astronaut John Crichton after he is shot through a wormhole into another part of the universe. Here Crichton is the only human being, going from being a member of the most intelligent species on our planet to being frequently considered mentally deficient by the beings he encounters in his new environment. John Crichton befriends a group of beings from various species attempting to escape from imprisonment aboard a living spaceship. The series, which broke many of the so-called "rules" of science fiction, follows Crichton''s attempts to survive in worlds that are often hostile to him and his friends. Their adventures center on each being''s attempt to find a way home. The essays in this volume explore themes running throughout the series, such as good and evil, love and sex, and what it means to be a hero, as well as the various characters populating the series, including the villains and even the ship itself.

The History of Middle-earth traces the evolution of J.R.R. Tolkien''s literary world, stories, and characters from their earliest written forms to the final revisions Tolkien penned shortly before his death in 1973. Published posthumously by Tolkien''s son Christopher, the extensively detailed 12-volume work allows readers to follow the development of the texts that eventually became Tolkien''s immensely popular The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales.

This work provides a thorough study of Tolkien''s life and influences through an analysis of The History of Middle-earth. The work begins with a brief biography and an analysis of the major influences in Tolkien''s life. Following chapters deal with elements common to Tolkien''s popular works, including the cosmogony, theogony, cosmology, metaphysics, and eschatology of Middle-earth. The study also reviews some of the myths with which Tolkien was most familiar--Greek, Roman, Finnish, and Norse--and reveals the often overlapping relationship between mythology, biblical stories, and Tolkien''s popular works.

This essay collection explores the life and work of science fiction doyen Ray Bradbury from a variety of perspectives. Noting the impact of the Southwest on Bradbury, some of the essays analyze Bradbury''s southwest metaphors: colonial pollution of a pristine ecology, the impacts of a colonial invasion upon an indigenous population, the meeting of cultures with different values and physical aspects. Other essays view Bradbury via the lens of post-colonialism, drawing parallels between such works as The Martian Chronicles and real-life colonialism and its effects. Another essay views Bradbury sociologically, analyzing border issues in his 1947 New Yorker story "I See You Never," written long before the issue of Mexican deportees appeared on the American literary horizon. From the scientific side, four essays by astronomers document how Bradbury formed the minds of many budding scientists with his vision. On August 22, 2012, the Martian landing site of the Curiosity rover in the Gale Crater was named "Bradbury." This honor shows that Bradbury forms a significant link between the worlds of fiction and planetary science.

Robert A. Heinlein is generally recognized as the most important American science fiction writer of the 20th century. This is the first detailed critical examination of his entire career. It is not a biography--that is being done in a two-volume work by William Patterson. Instead, this book looks at each piece of fiction (and a few pieces of sf-related nonfiction) that Heinlein wrote, chronologically by date of publication, in order to consider what each contributes to his overall accomplishment. The aim is to be fair, to look clearly at the strengths and weaknesses of the writings that have inspired generations of readers and writers.

This book explores how contemporary fantastic fiction by women writers responds to the past and imagines the future. The first two chapters look at revisionist rewritings of fairy tales and historical texts; the third and fourth focus on future-oriented narratives including dystopias and space fiction. Writers considered include Margaret Atwood, Octavia E. Butler, Angela Carter, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing, and Jeanette Winterson, among others. The author argues that an analysis of how past and future are understood in women''s fantastic fictions brings to light an "ethics of becoming" in the texts--a way of interrupting, revising and remaking problematic power structures that are tied to identity markers like class, gender and race. The book reveals how fantastic fiction can be read as narratives of disruption that enable the creation of an ethics of becoming.

The all-new essays in this book respond to the question, How do spaces in science fiction, both built and unbuilt, help shape the relationships among humans, other animals and their shared environments? Spaces, as well as a sense of place or belonging, play major roles in many science fiction works. This book focuses especially on depictions of the future that include, but move beyond, dystopias and offer us ways to imagine reinventing ourselves and our perspectives; especially our links to and views of new environments.

There are ecocritical texts that deal with space/place and science fiction criticism that deals with dystopias but there is no other collection that focuses on the intersection of the two.

This book makes connections between mythopoeic fantasy--works that engage the numinous--and the critical apparatuses of ecocriticism and posthumanism. Drawing from the ideas of Rudolf Otto in The Idea of the Holy, mythopoeic fantasy is a means of subverting normative modes of perception to both encounter the numinous and to challenge the perceptions of the natural world. Beginning with S.T. Coleridge''s theories of the imagination as embodied in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the book moves on to explore standard mythopoeic fantasists such as George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Taking a step outside these men, particularly influenced by Christianity, the concluding chapters discuss Algernon Blackwood and Ursula Le Guin, whose works evoke the numinous without a specifically Christian worldview.

This collection of new essays applies a wide range of critical frameworks to the analysis of prolific fantasy author Terry Pratchett''s Discworld books. Essays focus on topics such as Pratchett''s treatment of noise and silence and their political implications; art as an anodyne for racial conflict; humor and cognitive debugging; visual semiotics; linguistic stylistics and readers'' perspectives of word choice; and Derrida and the "monstrous Regiment of Women." The volume also includes an annotated bibliography of critical sources. The essays provide fresh perspectives on Pratchett''s work, which has stealthily redefined both fantasy and humor for modern audiences.

The birth of modern fantasy in 1930s Britain and America saw the development of new literary and film genres. J.R.R. Tolkien created modern fantasy with The Lord of the Rings, set in a fictional world based upon his life in the early 20th century British Empire, and his love of language and medieval literature. In small-town Texas, Robert E. Howard pounded out his own fantasy realm in his Conan stories, published serially in the ephemeral pulp magazines he loved. Jerry Siegel created Superman with Joe Shuster, and laid the foundation for perhaps the most far-reaching fantasy worlds: the universe of DC and Marvel comics.

The work of extraordinary people who lived in an extraordinary decade, this modern fantasy canon still provides source material for the most successful literary and film franchises of the 21st century. Modern fantasy speaks to the human experience and still shows its origins from the lives and times of its creators.

One of the great intellectual achievements of the 20th century, Joseph Campbell''s The Hero with a Thousand Faces is an elaborate articulation of the monomyth: the narrative pattern underlying countless stories from the most ancient myths and legends to the films and television series of today. The monomyth''s fundamental storyline, in Campbell''s words, sees "the hero venture forth from the world of the common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons to his fellow man." Campbell asserted that the hero is each of us--thus the monomyth''s endurance as a compelling plot structure.

This study examines the monomyth in the context of Campbell''s The Hero and discusses the use of this versatile narrative in 26 films and two television shows produced between 1960 and 2009, including the initial Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983), The Time Machine (1960), Logan''s Run (1976), Escape from New York (1981), Tron (1982), The Terminator (1984), The Matrix (1999), the first 11 Star Trek films (1979-2009), and the Sci Fi Channel''s miniseries Frank Herbert''s Dune (2000) and Frank Herbert''s Children of Dune (2003).

This book studies the treatment of science and technology from ancient myths to current works, demonstrating the importance of science to human civilization as evidenced in literature. Works studied include the Bible, Greek mythology, tales from the Middle Ages (including those about the Golem and Dr. Faustus), Gulliver''s Travels, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and works by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, George Orwell, Bertrand Russell, and Aldous Huxley, among others.

Speculative science fiction, with its underlying socio-political dialogue, represents an important intersection of popular culture and public discourse. As a pop culture text, the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars offers critical commentary on contemporary issues, marking a moment of interplay whereby author and audience come together in what Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin called collaborative meaning making. This book critically examines the series as a voice in the political dialogues concerning human cloning, torture, just war theory, peace and drone warfare.

A prolific author, Isaac Asimov is most admired for his science fiction, including his collection of short stories I, Robot and his Robot, Empire and Foundation series novels. While each of these narratives takes place in a different fictional universe, Asimov asserted at the end of his career that he had, with his last Robot and Foundation novels, unified them into one coherent metaseries.

This reference work identifies and describes all of the characters, locales, artifacts, concepts and institutions in Asimov''s metaseries. Mimicking the style of The Encyclopedia Galactica, the fictional compendium of all human knowledge that features prominently in the Foundation series, this encyclopedia is an invaluable companion to Asimov''s science fiction oeuvre.

Prolific, popular and critically acclaimed, Michael Moorcock is the most important British fantasy author of his generation. His Elric of Melnibone is an iconic figure for millions of fans but Moorcock has also been a pioneer in science fiction and historical fiction. He was hailed as the central figure of the "New Wave" in science fiction, and has won numerous awards for his fantasy and SF, as well as his "mainstream" writing.

This first full-length critical look at Moorcock''s career, from the early 1960s to the present, explores the author''s fictional multiverse: his fantasy tales of the "Eternal Champion"; his experimental Jerry Cornelius novels; the hilarious science-fiction satire of his "End of Time" books; and his complex meditations on 20th century history in Mother London and the Colonel Pyat tetralogy.

A literary genre that pervades 21st-century popular culture, science fiction creates mythologies that make statements about humanity''s place in the universe and embody an intersection of science, religion and philosophy.

This book considers the significance of this confluence through an examination of myths in the writings of H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick and Frank Herbert. Presenting fresh insights into their works, the author brings to light the tendency of science fiction narratives to reaffirm spiritual myths.

One of the major figures in science fiction for more than sixty years, James Gunn has been instrumental in making the genre one of the most vibrant and engaging areas of literary scholarship. His genre history Alternate Worlds and his The Road to Science Fiction anthologies introduced countless readers to science fiction. He founded the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction in 1982.

But Gunn has also been one of the genre''s leading writers. His classic novels Star Bridge (with Jack Williamson), The Joy Makers, The Immortals and The Listeners helped shape the field. Now in his nineties, he remains a prominent voice. His forthcoming novel is Transformation. Drawing on materials from Gunn''s archives and personal interviews with him, this study is the first to examine the life, career and writing of this science fiction grandmaster.