Article ID: CBB184221896

Close Encounters of the Tertiary Kind: Science Fiction as Tertiary Epic (2019)

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This paper will argue for science fiction as an extension of the epic tradition, modifying C.S. Lewis' conception of primary and secondary epic with Darko Suvin's notion of "cognitive estrangement". Science fiction wields estrangement in a related fashion to character-driven epic and thematic-driven epic, but it collapses the distinction between them in novel ways creating a "double estrangement function" in works of science fiction. Further, John Searle's "direction of fit" will be used to further illustrate this double estrangement. There are several advantages to seeing science fiction as a continuation of the epic tradition. It will upgrade the status of science fiction in literary studies, instead of relegating it to mere genre fiction.

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Article George N. Vlahakis (2019) Science and Imagination: An Introduction. Almagest (pp. 6-9). unapi

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Authors & Contributors
Bell, Andrea
Berg, Gunhild
Bould, Mark
Crossley, Robert
Dames, Nicholas
Duncan, Ian
Journals
Almagest
Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Science and Christian Belief
Science-Fiction Studies
Publishers
CLUEB
Yale University
Columbia University
Cambridge University Press
MIT Press
Pegasus Books
Concepts
Science and literature
Science fiction
Science and culture
Fiction
Popular culture
Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge
People
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Doyle, Arthur Conan
Lewis, Clive Staples
Wells, Herbert George
Crichton, Michael
Heyse, Paul
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
21st century
18th century
Modern
17th century
Places
Great Britain
Europe
United States
United Kingdom
Soviet Union
Germany
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