A collection of engaging essays on some of the most significant figures in cyberpunk culture, this outstanding guide charts the rich and varied landscape of cyberpunk from the 1970s to present day.
The collection features key figures from a variety of disciplines, from novelists, critical and cultural theorists, philosophers, and scholars, to filmmakers, comic book artists, game creators, and television writers. Important and influential names discussed include: J. G. Ballard, Jean Baudrillard, Rosi Braidotti, Charlie Brooker, Pat Cadigan, William Gibson, Donna J. Haraway, Nalo Hopkinson, Janelle Monáe, Annalee Newitz, Katsuhiro Ōtomo, Sadie Plant, Mike Pondsmith, Ridley Scott, Bruce Sterling, and the Wachowskis. The editors also include an afterword of ‘Honorable Mentions’ to highlight additional figures and groups of note that have played a role in shaping cyberpunk.
This accessible guide will be of interest to students and scholars of cultural studies, film studies, literature, media studies, as well as anyone with an interest in cyberpunk culture and science fiction.
Anna McFarlane is Lecturer in Medical Humanities at the University of Leeds, working on traumatic pregnancy and its expression in science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She is the co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture (2020) and is co-editing The Edinburgh Companion to Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities. Her first monograph is a study of William Gibson’s novels, Cyberpunk Culture and Psychology: Seeing Through the Mirrorshades (2021).
Graham J. Murphy is Professor with the School of English and Liberal Studies, Faculty of Arts, Seneca College. He is co-editor of Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives (2010), Cyberpunk and Visual Culture (2018), and The Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture (2020). In addition to numerous book chapters and journal articles, he authored "Cyberpunk and Post-Cyberpunk" for The Cambridge History of Science Fiction (2019) and a chapter on feminist cyberpunk for The Routledge Companion to Gender and Science Fiction (2022).
Lars Schmeink is Research Fellow at the Europa-Universität Flensburg and Lead Researcher of the "Science Fiction" subproject of "Future Work," a federally funded research project on labor in the 22nd century. He is also the author of Biopunk Dystopias: Genetic Engineering, Society, and Science Fiction (2016), and the co-editor of Cyberpunk and Visual Culture (2018), The Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture (2020), and New Perspectives on Contemporary German Science Fiction (2022).
