Scotland as Science Fiction (Aperçus: Histories Texts Cultures) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 161148426X ISBN 13: 9781611484267

Publisher: University Press Copublishing Division, 2011

Synopsis

Scots like Iain N. Banks and Ken MacLeod lead in a futuristic tradition, for from MacDonald, Barrie, and Stevenson onwards, Scots have been speculating in ways derived from their unique circumstances: lacking political power, they imagine future spaces and different places-with a twist. Nineteenth-century thermodynamics (theorized in Scotland), Celtic Otherworlds, and a Scotland always on the "other side" of history open unusual futures for Mitchison, Spark, Lindsay, Mitchell, MadDiarmid, Morgan, Crumey, Fitt, and Gray.

About this title

Review:

Scottish writers' concern with fantastic otherworlds goes back to Celtic mythology. The Scottish philosophers of the 18th century and the scientists and inventors of the 19th century were worlds ahead of their time. Today this tiny country survives in the shadow of nuclear subs, Trident missiles, and nuclear reactors, all the stuff of contemporary science fiction. This interesting study, which was born out of an MLA conference, includes work by seven Scotland-based senior scholars and three Americans in addition to McCracken-Flesher (Univ. of Wyoming). Two of the top Scottish sci-fi authors (Iain M. Banks and Matthew Fitt) receive two chapters each; Robert Louis Stevenson, J. M. Barrie, Muriel Spark, Alasdair Gray, Naomi Mitchison, et al. are also treated. Edwin Morgan even managed to write Scottish poetry as sci fi in "A Home in Space." The problem with studying this speculative genre is how to reconcile science fiction with a regional culture and an obsolescent Scots language. This provocative study meets the challenge head-on. With a mixture of science and fantasy, myth and technology, the land of Dolly the cloned sheep has created a "brave new Scotland" in rewriting the genre of science fiction. Good bibliography and notes (devalued by tiny print). Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers.--CHOICE

Insightful and innovative from a Scottish-studies point of view....Many of the chapters offer lively commentary....a merit of this collection is that it will encourage such further conversation and connection.--Science Fiction Studies

About the Author:

Caroline McCracken-Flesher is professor of English at the University of Wyoming. Her recent publications include Possible Scotlands: Walter Scott and the Story of Tomorrow (2005), The Doctor Dissected: A Cultural Autopsy of the Burke and Hare Murders (2011), and the edited Bucknell volume, Culture, Nation, and the New Scottish Parliament (2007).

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press Copublishing Division
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 161148426X
• ISBN 13: 9781611484267
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208
• Editor: McCracken-Flesher Caroline