Dear Incomprehension : On American Speculative Fiction / Stéphane Vanderhaeghe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vanderhaeghe, Stéphane, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Speculative fiction, American.

Genre:

Literary criticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (260 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa, Alabama : University of Alabama Press, [2024]

Summary:

"Dear Incomprehension tackles a broad swath of contemporary literature currently labeled "speculative fiction." A blurring of genres that includes science fiction, modern fairy tales, and avant-garde experimental fiction, these works are extremely popular but also derive from highly sophisticated philosophical and aesthetic sensibilities, ones that call into question and uproot the very foundations of stories and storytelling. Because such fictions subvert most conventional narrative devices-plot, recognizable characters, verisimilitude, logic, legibility-they deliberately confound almost any kind of conventional reading and criticism. So, what do you do with a text that cannot be conventionally read or understood? To do such a literature justice, the traditional frameworks of literary criticism fail, and Dear Incomprehension is more of an extended philosophical essay than it is a traditional work of criticism, as oblique and unconventional in its voice, tone, and methods as the texts it illuminates"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

List of abbreviations

Author's Note: Dear Incomprehension

Approach

Speculative Fiction

A Definition

Critique Speculative

Speculative Fiction: Its Resistance

Speculative Tools

Mapping Speculation

Sightings

Speculative Endings, Or "Rate This Apocalypse"

Speculative Topologies, Or "This Is Not for You"

Speculative Sublime, Or "__________________"

Speculative Language, Or "Understanding Is Overrated"

Speculative Interface, Or "cr!tical fa1lure/r3port loX0red"

Withdrawal

Notes

Works Cited

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-8173-9489-3