Summary:
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term that describes the blending of literary genres and subgenres such as science fiction and fantasy. Authors of speculative fiction create in their writing imaginative, alternate worlds to challenge and provoke controversy and debate about possibilities in the human experience. Negative connotations attached to speculative fiction, due to 1950s pulp fiction, have contributed to its lack of recognition as a legitimate classification of literature.
Genre refers to the classification of literary works based on their content, form, and technique, in order to shape the work an author composes and establish expectations that alter the way a responders will react to and intepret the work. As generic forms and functions are dynamic, the blending of genres such as science fiction, fantasy etc resulted in the need for an umbrella term to encompass all sub-genres in which an imaginative, alternate worlds is created, allowing the responder to consider "what may have been" or "what if." Speculative Fiction includes all these genres and sub-genres, in which composers create these imagined worlds to challenge and provoke controversy and debate about possibilities in the human experience.
In addition to the need for an umbrella term, the new genre of speculative fiction attempted to escape the stigma of previous connotations of science fiction and fantasy. Pulp Fiction in the 1950's degradated these genres through the depiction of clichés of monsters, sub-humans and magical beasts in hyperbolic or erotic cartoons. The presentation of fantasy and sci-fi in this way resulted many negative connotations toward the genres and is generally attributed to the lack of recognition for speculative texts the literary cannon and as a result classification of literature. Speculative texts The Lord of the Rings, The Handmaids Tale, Utopia and Gattaca all depict imagined worlds speculating what may happen and incorporate integral to the speculative fiction genre the disquiet about human societies and where they are headed.
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