Mapping the Megatext in Global Science Fiction
Editor(s) Dale Knickerbocker,Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay
Language: English
Genre(s): Literary Criticism
Series: New Dimensions in Science Fiction
- November 2026 · 272 pages ·216x138mm
- · Hardback - 9781837724376
- · eBook - pdf - 9781837724383
- · eBook - epub - 9781837724390
Istvan Csicsery Ronay defines the science fictional (SF) megatext as a ‘shared subcultural thesaurus of the genre’ (plot devices, tropes, character types, etc.) drawn upon and contributed to by each new work. Voices and trends from SF and global futurisms beyond the dominant anglophone market have attracted wider attention only in recent decades, and this study’s eleven essays map parts of the megatext by acquainting English-speaking readers, students and scholars of SF with works from the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Indigenous Australia, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and Wales. Each essay contextualises one author within national and international SF traditions, with in-depth analysis of a chosen work. Who are these writers and why are they important? What innovative thematic material or formal elements do they offer? What unique cultural characteristics do they bring to the genre, and how do they dialogue with both the history of the genre and the contemporary SF scene?
Acknowledgements
Editors and Contributors
Introduction
Dale Knickerbocker and Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay
‘A house of my own’: Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber (2000), postcoloniality, and narrative revision
W. Andrew Shephard
Claire G. Coleman’s Terra Nullius and Australian Indigenous Futurism
Iva Polak
The ‘pessoptimism’ of Arabic science fiction: a guide on travelogues in the works of Syrian 100 Ṭālib ‘Umrān
Ada Barbaro
Territorial histories: Lavie Tidhar, transcultural spaces, and Israeli fantastika
Elana Gomel
‘You are not alone’: Raana Raas (Etelka Suhajda) and the speculative future of religion in Hungarian SF and beyond
Bogi Takács
A strong survival instinct: Manon Steffan Ros’ Llyfr Glas Nebo (Blue Book of Nebo)
Miriam Elin Jones
Science fiction from Bangladesh: nonhuman laborers and human ethics in Muhammad Jafar Iqbal’s SF novels
Anwesha Maity
Speculating the welfare state: Cathrine Knudsen and Nordic science fiction
Ingvil Hellstrand
“The only thing that can save us from reality is fiction”: Lars Jakobson and his Friendly Friends
Jerry Määttä
Author(s): Dale Knickerbocker
Dale Knickerbocker is McMahon Distinguished Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures at East Carolina University. He specialises in Hispanic science fiction, horror and the fantastic, and is author of Juan José Millás: the obsessive-compulsive aesthetic, and editor of Lingua Cosmica: Essays on World Science Fiction.Author(s): Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay
Bodhisattva Chattopadhyah is Professor of Global Culture Studies in the Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oslo.