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    Critical Theory and Science Fiction
    Critical Theory and Science Fiction
    Critical Theory and Science Fiction
    Ebook416 pages14 hours

    Critical Theory and Science Fiction

    By Carl Freedman and Carl Freedom

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Selected by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Book of the Year. This innovative cultural critique offers valuable insights into science fiction, thus enlarging our understanding of critical theory.

    Carl Freedman traces the fundamental and mostly unexamined relationships between the discourses of science fiction and critical theory, arguing that science fiction is (or ought to be) a privileged genre for critical theory. He asserts that it is no accident that the upsurge of academic interest in science fiction since the 1970s coincides with the heyday of literary theory, and that likewise science fiction is one of the most theoretically informed areas of the literary profession. Extended readings of novels by five of the most important modern science fiction authors illustrate the affinity between science fiction and critical theory, in each case concentrating on one major novel that resonates with concerns proper to critical theory.

    Freedman's five readings are: Solaris: Stanislaw Lem and the Structure of Cognition; The Dispossessed: Ursula LeGuin and the Ambiguities of Utopia; The Two of Them: Joanna Russ and the Violence of Gender; Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand: Samuel Delany and the Dialectics of Difference; The Man in the High Castle: Philip K. Dick and the Construction of Realities.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateSep 1, 2013
    ISBN9780819574541
    Critical Theory and Science Fiction
    Author

    Carl Freedman

    Carl Freedman is the William A. Read professor of English literature at Louisiana State University and the author of many books and essays. His most recent volume is American Presidents and Oliver Stone: Kennedy, Nixon, and Bush Between History and Cinema (Intellect, 2020). Contact: Department of English, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA.

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      Critical Theory and Science Fiction - Carl Freedman

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