Such definitions will also have a deep effect on the criticsвЂ™ ideas about the formation of the genre-whether an individual critic argues that it began with Lucian or Shelley or Poe or Verne or Wells, or even with Gernsback, is deeply predicated on that criticвЂ™s beliefs, political, ethical, aesthetic, or what have you. To define it in a particular way, in terms of its formal apparatus, its capacity for critique, its potential as a marginal cultural production to act as a form of cryptogram, its potential to imagine вЂњthe Other of what isвЂќ or even as a form of escape and entertainment, expresses specific political, ethical and literary conceptualizations of the genre. Many of BakerвЂ™s readers will already know this material, but he is particularly good at pointing out how such criticsвЂ™ definitions are often grounded in very different preconceptions about the genre:Дefining SF is therefore not a neutral activity. In вЂњDefinitions: What is Science Fiction?вЂќ Baker summarizes the numerous genre definitions formulated by such critics as David Seed, Adam Roberts, Luckhurst, Tzvetan Todorov, Rosemary Jackson, Christine Brooke-Rose, and Darko Suvin.

Budrys, and discusses the work of non-academic critics who simply cannot be ignored-for example, John Clute, Thomas M. He then covers the standard arguments about sfвЂ™s feelings of illegitimacy, devoting space to Roger LuckhurstвЂ™s вЂњThe Many Deaths of Science FictionвЂќ (1994), centering on his claim that вЂњhe ultimate legitimation would be to rejoin the literary mainstream, to end SF as a separate genreвЂќ (2), Baker also emphasizes that his book focuses on academic rather than fan criticism, though, he insists, not out of any disrespect he does, however, devote a chapter to the criticism of sf writers such as James Blish and A.J. Baker makes no attempt to be comprehensive but covers as many of the relevant critical works as possible in the allotted space, some of them at length, others in little more than a parenthetical remark.Д«aker begins with an Introduction, вЂњAt the Borders of Literature and Genre,вЂќ which discusses вЂњScience fictionвЂ™s crises of legitimationвЂќ and argues that the genre вЂњ(and its criticism) remains a contested fieldвЂќ (vii). The book consists of eight chapter-length bibliographic essays and a useful bibliography.

PalgraveвЂ™s ReadersвЂ™ Guides to Essential Criticism series, which already includes volumes on Angela Carter, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, and George Orwell, has now presented us with Brian BakerвЂ™s study Science Fiction. READERS' GUIDES TO ESSENTIAL CRITICISM SERIES.

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