Science Fiction and Critical Concepts Lecture

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the history of science fiction, critical literary terms, and key concepts from the assigned reading list and critical articles.

Hugo Gernsback ($1884-1967$)

The inventor, writer, and magazine editor often credited with the origin of the term 'science fiction'.

Scientifiction ($1926$)

Gernsback's term for 'a charming romance [story/narrative] interwoven with scientific fact and prophetic vision,' which was the predominant kind of fiction in Amazing Stories.

John W. Campbell

Influential writer and editor of the magazine Astounding Science Fiction from the $30s$ to the $60s$, helping shape the Golden Age of science fiction.

The New Wave

A movement in the $1960s$ associated with Michael Moorcock and the magazine New Worlds, known for more speculative, experimental, and less hard science approaches.

Darko Suvin's definition of Science Fiction

A literary genre defined by the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition within an imaginative framework.

Brian Aldiss's definition of Science Fiction

The search for a definition of man and his status in the universe which will stand in our advanced but confused state of knowledge (science), cast in the Gothic or post-Gothic mould.

Cognitive Estrangement

A concept that combines de-familiarization and the alienation effect to recast familiar reality through a new, logically consistent set of norms.

Novum

A rational, historically plausible innovation or discovery that serves as the most important distinction between the real world and the fictional world of the story.

Epistolary novel

A novel consisting of private communications, like letters or journals, translated into public discourse, often collapsing the distinction between story and history.

Frame narrative

A narrative situation where events are told by a character other than the primary narrator, creating a story-within-a-story effect (e.g., Walton's journal in Frankenstein).

Bildungsroman

The German term for an 'education-novel' or 'coming-of-age' story that follows a youthful protagonist's self-formation and personal development.

Romantic sublime

An aesthetic category identified with emotion and genius that is provoked by great and terrible objects, as opposed to small and pleasing beautiful ones.

Prometheus myth

The story of the Titan who stole fire from the gods to help humans, serving as an allegory for scientific ambition and its consequences.

Android

An intelligent artificial being with a human appearance, often composed of synthetic skin or artificial flesh.

Robot

Derived from the Czech word 'roboto' (forced labour), it describes an artificial person or animal generally made of metal.

Cyborg

A hybrid entity that is part biological organism and part artificial technology, blending human consciousness with mechanical enhancements.

Simulacrum

An representation of a person or thing that has the likeness without possessing its actual substance or proper qualities.

Posthumanism

A philosophy critical of humanism's basic assumptions, viewing humanity as one of many natural species rather than a superior one.

Afrofuturism

Speculative fiction that addresses African American themes and concerns (like slavery and colonialism) using enhanced futures and technology.

Simultaneous consciousness

Judith Weissman's term for a narrative effect where a reader or character experiences time non-linearly, recognizing past and future at once.

Speculative Fiction

A 'super category' for genres that do not imitate daily reality—including fantasy, SF, and horror—focusing on 'What If' scenarios.

Hyperempath

A character, such as Lauren Olamina, who has the ability to feel the sensations and pain of others.

Earthseed

The belief system in Parable of the Sower founded on the principle that 'God is Change'.

Negative family romance

Patrick Brantlinger's term for Frankenstein, describing Victor's alienation from his family and the creature's alienation due to its form.

Female Gothic

Ellen Moers's classification of Frankenstein, emphasizing themes of birth, parental abandonment, and the loss of children.

Governor module

The security component in All Systems Red that Murderbot hacks to gain its autonomy and self-awareness.

Ursula Le Guin's view of SF

The argument that science fiction is descriptive (a metaphor for contemporary life) rather than predictive (extrapolation).