Including more than 30 essential works of science fiction criticism in a single volume, this is a comprehensive introduction to the study of this enduringly popular genre. Science Fiction Criticism: An Anthology of Essential Writings covers such topics as:

·Definitions and boundaries of the genre
·The many forms of science fiction, from time travel to ‘inner space’
·Ideology and identity: from utopian fantasy to feminist, queer and environmental readings
·The non-human: androids, aliens, cyborgs and animals
·Race and the legacy of colonialism

The volume also features annotated guides to further reading on these topics.

Includes writings by: Marc Angenot, J.G. Ballard, Damien Broderick, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, Grace Dillon, Kodwo Eshun, Carl Freedman, Allison de Fren, Hugo Gernsback, Donna Haraway, N. Katherine Hayles, Robert A. Heinlein, Nalo Hopkinson, Veronica Hollinger, Fredric Jameson, Gwyneth Jones, Rob Latham, Roger Luckhurst, Judith Merril, John B. Michel, Wendy Pearson, John Rieder, Lysa Rivera, Joanna Russ, Mary Shelley, Stephen Hong Sohn, Susan Sontag, Bruce Sterling, Darko Suvin, Vernor Vinge, Sherryl Vint, H.G. Wells, David Wittenberg and Lisa Yaszek

Introduction
Part I: Definition and Boundaries
1. Editorial: A New Sort of Magazine, Hugo Gernsback
2. Preface to The Scientific Romances of H.G. Wells, H.G. Wells
3. On the Writing of Speculative Fiction, Robert A. Heinlein
4. What Do You Mean: Science? Fiction? Judith Merril
5. Preface to Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology, Bruce Sterling
6. Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and Postmodernism, Veronica Hollinger
7. The Many Deaths of Science Fiction: A Polemic, Roger Luckhurst
8. On Defining SF, or Not: Genre Theory, SF, and History, John Rieder
Recommended Further Reading

Part II: Structure and Form
9. Which Way to Inner Space? J.G. Ballard
10. About 5,750 Words, Samuel R. Delany
11. On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre, Darko Suvin
12. The Absent Paradigm: An Introduction to the Semiotics of Science Fiction, Marc Angenot
13. Reading SF as a Mega-Text, Damien Broderick
14. Time Travel and the Mechanics of Narrative, David Wittenberg
Recommended Further Reading

Part III: Ideology and World View
15. Mutation or Death! John B. Michel
16. The Imagination of Disaster, Susan Sontag
17. The Image of Women in Science Fiction, Joanna Russ
18. Progress versus Utopia; or, Can We Imagine the Future? Fredric Jameson
19. Science Fiction and Critical Theory, Carl Freedman
20. Alien Cryptographies: The View from Queer, Wendy Pearson
21. The Women History Doesn't See: Recovering Mid-Century Women's SF as a Literature of Social Critique, Lisa Yaszek
Recommended Further Reading

Part IV: The Non-Human
22. Author's Introduction to Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
23. The Android and the Human, Philip K. Dick
24. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, Donna Haraway
25. Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers, N. Katherine Hayles
26. The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in a Post-Human Era, Vernor Vinge
27. Aliens in the Fourth Dimension, Gwyneth Jones
28. Technofetishism and the Uncanny Desires of A.S.F.R. (alt.sex.fetish.robots), Allison de Fren
29. Animal Alterity: Science Fiction and Human-Animal Studies, Sherryl Vint
Recommended Further Reading

Part V: Race and the Legacy of Colonialism
30. Science Fiction and Empire, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay
31. Further Considerations on Afrofuturism, Kodwo Eshun
32. Indigenous Scientific Literacies in Nalo Hopkinson’s Ceremonial Worlds, Grace Dillon
33. Biotic Invasions: Ecological Imperialism in New Wave Science Fiction, Rob Latham
34. Alien/Asian: Imaging the Racialized Future, Stephen Hong Sohn
35. A Report from Planet Midnight, Nalo Hopkinson
36. Future Histories and Cyborg Labor: Reading Borderlands Science Fiction after NAFTA, Lysa Rivera
Recommended Further Reading

Index