Could you work sci-fi/fantasy into that, as well? As in, what are they trying to say/what can we learn about the author's own period by setting something in the future/alternative world, especially in the case of books written in the past (ie, Jules Verne)?
Actually, yes. That would be an awesome contrast to works set in historical periods. I could do a bunch of compare/contrast-type papers with that premise!
Or is that not the angle you're interested in on the sci-fi/fantasy side of things?
It's definitely one of the angles I'm interested in (to be honest, it's probably the only angle that would make study of SF acceptable to the academic community--what we can learn about the author's world, what the author was trying to say about his/her world). But I'm interested in doing the same kind of work people do on other twentieth-century lit, just on sci-fi and fantasy novels, whcih have been woefully neglected. (Okay. Some of them suck. A great majority of them suck. But so does most modern lit, I think...)
And most importantly, how dizzy did that paragraph just make you? 'cause I'm not even sure I understood it... ;)
Heh. I want to write a big paper on Stoppard's Arcadia. Try reading that without becoming dizzy.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-08-01 02:38 pm (UTC)Actually, yes. That would be an awesome contrast to works set in historical periods. I could do a bunch of compare/contrast-type papers with that premise!
Or is that not the angle you're interested in on the sci-fi/fantasy side of things?
It's definitely one of the angles I'm interested in (to be honest, it's probably the only angle that would make study of SF acceptable to the academic community--what we can learn about the author's world, what the author was trying to say about his/her world). But I'm interested in doing the same kind of work people do on other twentieth-century lit, just on sci-fi and fantasy novels, whcih have been woefully neglected. (Okay. Some of them suck. A great majority of them suck. But so does most modern lit, I think...)
And most importantly, how dizzy did that paragraph just make you? 'cause I'm not even sure I understood it... ;)
Heh. I want to write a big paper on Stoppard's Arcadia. Try reading that without becoming dizzy.