The umbrella genre of speculative fiction is characterized by a lesser degree of adherence to realistic or plausible individuals, events, or places, while the umbrella genres of realistic fiction or literary realism are characterized by a greater degree of adherence. For instance, speculative fiction may depict an entirely imaginary universe or one in which the laws of nature do not strictly apply (often, the sub-genre of fantasy). Or, it depicts true historical moments, except that they have concluded in a completely imaginary way or been followed by major new events that are completely imaginary (the genre of alternative history). Or, it depicts impossible technology or technology that defies current scientific understandings or capabilities (the genre of science fiction).
Contrarily, realistic fiction involves a story whose basic setting (time and location in the world) is, in fact, real and whose events could believably happen in the context of the real world. One realistic fiction sub-genre is historical fiction, centered around true major events and time periods in the past.[4] The attempt to make stories feel faithful to reality or to more objectively describe details, and the 19th-century artistic movement that began to vigorously promote this approach, is called "literary realism", which incorporates some works of both fiction and non-fiction.
Distinguishing science fiction from other speculative fiction
"Speculative fiction" is sometimes abbreviated "spec-fic", "spec fic", "specfic",[5] "S-F", "SF", or "sf".[6][7] The last three abbreviations, however, are ambiguous as they have long been used to refer to science fiction (which lies within this general range of literature).[8] It is sometimes also known as "the fantastic"[9] or as fantastika, the latter term attributed to John Clute who coined it in 2007 after the term for the genre in some Slavic languages.[9][10]
The term has been used by some critics and writers dissatisfied with what they consider to be a limitation of science fiction: the need for the story to hold to scientific principles. They argue that "speculative fiction" better defines an expanded, open, imaginative type of fiction than does "genre fiction", and the categories of "fantasy", "mystery", "horror" and "science fiction".[11]Harlan Ellison used the term to avoid being pigeonholed as a science fiction writer. Ellison, a fervent proponent of writers embracing more literary and modernist directions,[12][13] broke out of genre conventions to push the boundaries of speculative fiction.
The term suppositional fiction is sometimes used as a sub-category designating fiction in which characters and stories are constrained by an internally consistent world, but not necessarily one defined by any particular genre.[14][15][16]
History
Euripides
Speculative fiction as a category ranges from ancient works to paradigm-changing and neotraditional works of the 21st century.[17][18] Characteristics of speculative fiction have been recognized in older works whose authors' intentions, or in the social contexts of the stories they portray, are now known. For example, the ancient Greek dramatist, Euripides, (c. 480 – c. 406 BCE) whose play Medea seems to have offended Athenian audiences when he speculated that the titular shamaness Medea killed her own children, as opposed to their being killed by other Corinthians after her departure.[19] Additionally, Euripides' play, Hippolytus, narratively introduced by Aphrodite, Goddess of Love in person, is suspected to have displeased his contemporary audiences, as his portrayal of Phaedra was seen as too lusty.[20]
In mythography the concept of speculative fiction has been termed "mythopoesis", or mythopoeia. This practice involves the creative design and generation of lore and mythology for works of fiction. The term's definition comes from its use by J. R. R. Tolkien, whose novel, The Lord of the Rings,[24] demonstrates a clear application of this process. Themes common in mythopoeia, such as the supernatural, alternate history and sexuality, continue to be explored in works produced within the modern speculative fiction genre.[25]
The creation of speculative fiction in its general sense of hypothetical history, explanation, or ahistorical storytelling, has also been attributed to authors in ostensibly non-fiction modes since as early as Herodotus of Halicarnassus (fl. 5th century BCE), for his Histories,[26][27][28] and was already both practiced and edited out by early encyclopedic writers like Sima Qian (c. 145 or 135 BCE–86 BCE), author of Shiji.[29][30]
These examples highlight the caveat that many works, now regarded as intentional or unintentional speculative fiction, long predated the coining of the genre term; its concept, in its broadest sense, captures both a conscious and unconscious aspect of human psychology in making sense of the world, and responds to it by creating imaginative, inventive, and artistic expressions. Such expressions can contribute to practical societal progress through interpersonal influences, social and cultural movements, scientific research and advances, and the philosophy of science.[31][32][33]
Robert Heinlein c.1953
In its English-language usage in arts and literature since the mid 20th century, "speculative fiction" as a genre term has often been attributed to Robert A. Heinlein, who first used the term in an editorial in The Saturday Evening Post, 8 February 1947. In the article, Heinlein used "Speculative Fiction" as a synonym for "science fiction"; in a later piece, he explicitly stated that his use of the term did not include fantasy. However, though Heinlein may have come up with the term on his own, there are earlier citations: a piece in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1889 used the term in reference to Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward: 2000–1887 and other works; and one in the May 1900 issue of The Bookman said that John Uri Lloyd's Etidorhpa, The End of the Earth had "created a great deal of discussion among people interested in speculative fiction".[34] A variation on this term is "speculative literature".[35]
The use of "speculative fiction" in the sense of expressing dissatisfaction with traditional or establishment science fiction was popularized in the 1960s and early 1970s by Judith Merril, as well as other writers and editors in connection with the New Wave movement. However, this use of the term fell into disuse around the mid-1970s.[36]
In the 2000s, the term came into wider use as a convenient collective term for a set of genres. However, some writers, such as Margaret Atwood, who wrote The Handmaid's Tale, continue to distinguish "speculative fiction" specifically as a "no Martians" type of science fiction, "about things that really could happen."[37]
Speculative fiction is also used as a genre term that combines different ones into a single narrative or fictional world such as "science fiction, horror, fantasy...[and]...mystery".[38]
According to publisher statistics, men outnumber women about two to one among English-language speculative fiction writers aiming for professional publication. However, the percentages vary considerably by genre, with women outnumbering men in the fields of urban fantasy, paranormal romance and young adult fiction.[39]
Features technologies and other elements that do not exist in real life but may be supposed to be created or discovered in the future through scientific advancement, such as advanced robots, interstellar travel, aliens, time travel, mutants and cyborgs. Many sci-fi stories are set in the future.
Centers on superheroes (i.e., heroes with extraordinary abilities or powers) and their fight against evil forces such as supervillains. Typically incorporates elements of science fiction or fantasy, and may be a subgenre of them.
Hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and the genre of Western.
Genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada.
Similar to horror and fantasy, it overlaps with Paranormal Romance, Contemporary Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Occult Detective Fiction, and Paranormal Fiction. It exploits or requires plot devices or themes that often contradict commonplace, materialist assumptions about the natural world.
Focuses on terrifying stories that incite fear. Villains may be either supernatural, such as monsters, vampires, ghosts and demons, or mundane people, such as psychopathic and cruel murderers. Often features violence and death.
^ abOziewicz, Marek (2017). "Speculative Fiction". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.78. ISBN978-0-19-020109-8. Archived from the original on 18 October 2022. ... a super category for all genres that deliberately depart from imitating "consensus reality" of everyday experience. In this latter sense, speculative fiction includes fantasy, science fiction, and horror, but also their derivatives, hybrids, and cognate genres like the gothic, dystopia, weird fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction, ghost stories, superhero tales, alternate history, steampunk, slipstream, magic realism, fractured fairy tales, and more.
^Davies, Philip. "Review [untitled; reviewed work(s): Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching by Patrick Parrinder; Fantastic Lives: Autobiographical Essays by Notable Science Fiction Writers by Martin Greenberg; Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction by H. Bruce Franklin; Bridges to Science Fiction by George E. Slusser, George R. Guffey, Mark Rose]. Journal of American Studies Vol. 16, No. 1 (April 1982). pp. 157–159.
^Izenberg, Orin (2011). Being Numerous: Poetry and the Ground of Social Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 210.
^Leitch, Thomas M. What Stories Are: Narrative Theory and Interpretation University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1986; p. 127
^Domańska, Ewa (1998). Encounters: Philosophy of History After Postmodernism. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia. p. 10.
^Barry Baldwin, Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Calgary, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, "Ancient Science Fiction", Shattercolors Literary Review
^Martha Tuck Rozett, "Creating a Context for Shakespeare with Historical Fiction", Shakespeare Quarterly
Vol. 46, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), pp. 220–227
^Dorothea Kehler, A midsummer night's dream: critical essays, 2001
^Adcox, John, "Can Fantasy be Myth? Mythopoeia and The Lord of the Rings" in "The Newsletter of the Mythic Imagination Institute, September/October, 2003"
^Eric Garber, Lyn Paleo Uranian Worlds: A Guide to Alternative Sexuality in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, 2nd Edition, G K Hall: 1990 ISBN978-0-8161-1832-8
^Herodotus and Myth Conference, Christ Church, Oxford, 2003
^John M. Marincola, Introduction and Notes, The Histories by Herodotus, tr. Aubrey De Sélincourt, 2007
^Canton, James; Cleary, Helen; Kramer, Ann; Laxby, Robin; Loxley, Diana; Ripley, Esther; Todd, Megan; Shaghar, Hila; Valente, Alex; et al. (Authors) (2016). The Literature Book (First American ed.). New York: DK. p. 343. ISBN978-1-4654-2988-9.
