《英美科幻小说简史》按时间顺序编写,清晰地勾勒了英美科幻小说从起源至今的发展轨迹,介绍了科幻小说发展的各个阶段的历史背景、重要作家和作品以及科幻小说的特点。
为使读者了解科幻小说的基本类型,掌握科幻小说批评的基本术语,《英美科幻小说简史》在各章都加入了与之有关的术语,力图使读者对科幻小说有更深入、更专业的了解。
在作家选取上,以各时期、各类型科幻小说的代表作家及其作品影响力为首选原则,并对所选作家的代表作品作较为详细的介绍和评论。
作为科幻文学的重要组成部分,科幻电影和电视在科幻文学领域中的地位不容忽视。《英美科幻小说简史》在最后一章简要介绍了科幻电影和电视的发展轨迹,以及重要作品。
《英美科幻小说简史》后列有三个附录:①历年科幻作品大奖“雨果奖”和“星云奖“的获奖作品和作者的名单②科幻小说代表作家名单③科幻小说编年表,以方便读者做进一步的学习和研究。
2.The New Wave
The New Wave has become a term used to describe the work of aloosely aligned group of SF writers in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to instill SF with greater social and political relevance,more mature subject matte~and high literary quality.7hey attempted to bring science fiction into the literary mainstream by emphasizing style rather than scientific accuracy.New Wave writers shared the notion that the world was notimproving and expressed a distrust of science and technology.The term New Wave sometimes has been applied only to a specific and small group of British writers--most notably Michael Moorcock.J.G Ballard and Brian Aldiss,John Brunneg and Christopher Priest.They explored in their works such controversialideas as sex,race and homosexuality.questioned the conventional values of government,capitalism,consumerism,conformity,religion,science and technology,and were more concerned with the“soft”sciences of psychology,sociology,and anthropology rather than the“hard”sciences of technology and engineering.Their works are characterized by a high degree of experimentation,both in form and in content.a“literary’’or artistic sensibility,and a new focus on“inner space’’as opposed to the“outer space”of the older SF writers.Character development becomes central to theft stories.Their plots become more complex,recursive with flashbacks and fragmented sections.Compared with the Golden Age positivism,New Wave SF is more pessimistic in its perception of the universe and technology.The differences between the New Wave and conventional SF are most commonly drawn as being a divide between science fiction and mainstream Iiterature
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