science fiction and fairy tales
science fiction and fairy tales.Science fiction (SF) and the fairy tale both deal with situations that are contrary to fact, a quality Samuel R. Delany calls ‘subjunctivity’. Although the term ‘science fiction’ might seem automatically to exclude any meaningful contact with the fairy tale, both are subsets of the mode called fantastic. Rosemary Jackson defines mode as a set of general rules not limited to a particular literary type (genre) or time period, and the critics Brian Aldiss and Damien Broderick have found it more useful to speak of SF as a mode than as a genre or story type, since one can then focus on what SF does instead of on what elements—space travel or aliens—it includes. At the same time, SF is marketed as a genre separate from fantasy in recognition of the distinctive formulaic elements of each type.
SF is the most recent addition to the fantastic mode. It began in the 19th century as narrative response to...
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