This book focuses on the interplay of gender, race, and their representation in American science fiction, from the nineteenth-century through to the twenty-first, and across a number of forms including literature and film. Haslam explores the reasons why SF provides such a rich medium for both the preservation of and challenges to dominant mythologies of gender and race. Defining SF linguistically and culturally, the study argues that this mode is not only able to illuminate the cultural and soc...
What is Mars? From the ancients to the present, we have imagined Mars repeatedly and studied it longingly. As scientific knowledge of Mars has changed, so has the cultural imagination of this celestial neighbors. The earth-centered beginnings of astronomy connected the blood-red planet with the God of War. The Copernican Revolution and a later, simple mistranslation from Italian supported fantastic visions of distant Mars as the abode of life variously bizarre, ideal, or malignant. In the work o...
Before she was a renowned children's author, J.K. Rowling was an educator. Her bestselling series, Harry Potter, places education at the forefront, focusing not only on Harry, Ron, and Hermione's adventures but also on their magical education. This multi-author collection shines a light on the central role of education within the Harry Potter series, exploring the pedagogical possibilities of using Harry Potter to enhance teaching effectiveness. Authors examine topics related to environments fo...
A Cultural History of Fairy Tales (The Cultural Histories)
How have the fairy tales of different cultures changed over the centuries? What do they tell us about our fears and hopes? In a work that spans 2,500 years these ambitious questions are addressed by over 50 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. With the help of a broad range of case material they illustrate broad trends and nuances of the fairy tale in Western culture from antiquity to the present. Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of t...
Worlds of Wonder (Reappraisals: Canadian Writers)
No longer dismissed as 'escapist' reading, critics have finally discovered a brave new world of science fiction and fantasy literature. This book is a long-overdue tribute to this previously ignored genre, placing these works within a general context of Canadian literature and culture.
Los hologramas del poseso y Entropia (Universo Cuantico, #2)
by Leonardo Salvador Vivar Ayora
JRR Tolkien, creator of the fictional world of Middle Earth and one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, grew up and spent his formative years in the suburbs of Birmingham. This work provides an exploration of the real-life places, which inspired Tolkein's middle earth, illustrated with almost 200 images.
The Art of the Film: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
by Dermot Power
Step inside the world of the talented art departments who, led by Academy Award (R)-winning production designer Stuart Craig, were responsible for the creation of the unforgettable characters, locations and beasts in J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The Art of the Film, edited by concept artist Dermot Power, takes you on a magical journey through a design process every bit as wonderful as Newt Scamander's adventure in the wizarding world. Bursting with...
Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with his Century: 1948-1988 The Man Who Learned Better The real-life story of Robert A. Heinlein in the second volume of the authorized biography by William H. Patterson!Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) is generally considered the greatest American science fiction writer of the twentieth century. His most famous and widely influential works include the Future History series (stories and novels collected in The Past Through Tomorrow and continued in later novels), St...
20,000 Leagues under the Sea (Extraordinary Voyages, #6)
by Jules Verne
Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title--offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All editions are complete and unabridged, and feature Introductions and Afterwords. This edition of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" includes a Foreword and Afterword by T. A. Barron. Jules Verne is considered the...
Challenging convention with the SF nonconformist Roger Zelazny combined poetic prose with fearless literary ambition to become one of the most influential science fiction writers of the 1960s. Yet many critics found his later novels underachieving and his turn to fantasy a disappointment. F. Brett Cox surveys the landscape of Zelazny's creative life and contradictions. Launched by the classic 1963 short story "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," Zelazny soon won the Hugo Award for Best Novel with …And Ca...
Through its engagement with different kinds of texts, Exploring the Limits of the Human through Science Fiction represents a new way of approaching both science fiction and critical theory, and its uses both to question what it means to be human in digital era.
Science Fiction, Canonization, Marginalization, and the Academy
by Gary Westfahl and George Edgar Slusser
A new expanded edition of Tolkien's most famous, and most important essay, which defined his conception of fantasy as a literary form, and which led to the writing of The Lord of the Rings. Accompanied by a critical study of the history and writing of the text. J.R.R. Tolkien's "On Fairy-stories" is his most-studied and most-quoted essay, an exemplary personal statement of his views on the role of imagination in literature, and an intellectual tour de force vital for understanding Tolk...
At the 2013 "Celebrating The Hobbit" conference at Valparaiso University - marking the 75th anniversary of the book's publication and the first installment of Peter Jackson's Hobbit movies - two plenary papers were presented: "Anchoring the Myth: The Impact of The Hobbit on Tolkien's Legendarium" by John D. Rateliff provided numerous examples of The Hobbit's influence on Tolkien's legendarium; and "Tolkien's French connections" by Verlyn Flieger discussed French influences on the development of...
Under his own name and numerous pseudonyms, John Brunner (1934–1995) was one of the most prolific and influential science fiction authors of the late twentieth century. During his exemplary career, the British author wrote with a stamina matched by only a few other great science fiction writers and with a literary quality of even fewer, importing modernist techniques into his novels and stories and probing every major theme of his generation: robotics, racism, drugs, space exploration, technolog...