Locating Science Fiction

The project will devise, develop and apply a new 'cultural materialist' paradigm for science fiction studies. The new paradigm will sidestep the current impasse between the 'critical theory' and 'popular fiction' approaches which currently dispute the field. The project will proceed through two stages: a cultural materialist theorisation of the genesis and structure of science fiction as a genre; and a case study of science fictional representations of catastrophe, especially plague, nuclear war and extreme climate change.