speculative fiction

The umbrella genre of speculative fiction is characterized by a lesser degree of adherence to plausible depictions of individuals, events, or places, while the umbrella genre of realistic fiction (partly crossing over with literary realism) is characterized by a greater degree of adherence to such depictions. For instance, speculative fiction may depict an entirely imaginary universe or one in which the laws of nature do not strictly apply (often the subgenre of fantasy). Alternatively, the genre depicts actual historical moments, except that they have concluded in an entirely imaginary way or been followed by major imaginary events (i.e., the subgenre of alternative history). As another alternative, the genre depicts impossible technology or technology that defies current scientific understanding or capabilities (i.e., the subgenre of science fiction).

By contrast, realistic fiction involves a story whose basic setting is real and whose events could plausibly occur in the real world. One realistic fiction subgenre is historical fiction, which is centred around actual major events and time periods of the past.{{Cite journal |last=Kuzminski |first=Adrian |date=1979 |title=Defending Historical Realism |journal=History and Theory |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=316–349 |doi=10.2307/2504534 |issn=0018-2656 |jstor=2504534}} The attempt to make stories seem faithful to reality or to more objectively describe details—and also the 19th-century artistic movement that vigorously promoted this approach—is called "literary realism"; this includes both fiction and non-fiction works.

"Speculative fiction" is sometimes abbreviated as spec-fic, spec fic, specfic,{{Cite web |title=SpecFicWorld |url=http://www.specficworld.com/ |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=SpecFicWorld |archive-date=14 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130114224923/http://www.specficworld.com/ |url-status=live }} S-F, SF, or sf.{{Cite web |title=A Speculative Fiction Blog |url=http://www.sfsignal.com/ |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=SFSignal |archive-date=10 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130210221437/http://www.sfsignal.com/ |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last1=Vint |first1=Sherryl |title=Science Fiction |date=16 February 2021 |publisher=The MIT Press |isbn=9780262539999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cSkWEAAAQBAJ&q=science+fiction+sherryl+vint |access-date=1 May 2023}} The last three abbreviations, however, are ambiguous since they have long been used to refer to science fiction (which lies within this general area of literature).{{Cite web |title=The Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy |url=http://www.sfsite.com/ |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=The SF Site |archive-date=29 August 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060829084434/http://www.sfsite.com/ |url-status=live }} The genre is sometimes known as the fantastic{{Citation |last=Golovacheva |first=Irina |title=Is the Fantastic Really Fantastic? |date=2018-03-27 |work=Is the Fantastic Really Fantastic? |pages=61–90 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839440278-004/html |access-date=2024-09-09 |publisher=transcript Verlag |language=en |doi=10.1515/9783839440278-004/html |isbn=978-3-8394-4027-8}} or fantastika; the latter term is attributed to science fiction scholar John Clute, who coined it in 2007 after the term for the genre in some Slavic languages.{{Cite web |last=Clute |first=John |last2=Langford |first2=David |title=SFE: Fantastika |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/fantastika |access-date=2024-08-31 |website=sf-encyclopedia.com}}

The term speculative fiction has been used by some critics and writers who oppose a perceived limitation of science fiction: the requirement for a story to adhere to scientific principles. These people argue that speculative fiction better defines an expanded, open, imaginative type of fiction than does genre fiction, and the categories of fantasy, mystery, horror and science fiction.{{Cite web |title=Citations and definitions for the term 'speculative fiction' by speculative fiction reviewers |url=http://www.greententacles.com/articles/5/26 |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=Greententacles.com |archive-date=26 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130126122019/http://www.greententacles.com/articles/5/26 |url-status=live }} Harlan Ellison used the term to avoid being classified as a science fiction writer. Ellison, a fervent proponent of writers embracing more literary and modernist directions,{{Cite magazine |last=Watts |first=Peter |date=Summer 2003 |title=Margaret Atwood and the Hierarchy of Contempt |url=http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts/PeterWatts_Atwood.pdf |magazine=On Spec |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=3–5 |access-date=9 November 2019}}Davies, Philip. "Review [untitled; reviewed work(s): Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching by Patrick Parrinder; Fantastic Lives: Autobiographical Essays by Notable Science Fiction Writers by Martin Greenberg; Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction by H. Bruce Franklin; Bridges to Science Fiction by George E. Slusser, George R. Guffey, Mark Rose]. Journal of American Studies Vol. 16, No. 1 (April 1982). pp. 157–159. broke out of genre conventions to push the boundaries of speculative fiction.

The term suppositional fiction is sometimes used as a subcategory designating fiction in which characters and stories are constrained by an internally consistent world, but not necessarily one defined by any particular genre.Izenberg, Orin (2011). Being Numerous: Poetry and the Ground of Social Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 210.Leitch, Thomas M. What Stories Are: Narrative Theory and Interpretation University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1986; p. 127Domańska, Ewa (1998). Encounters: Philosophy of History After Postmodernism. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia. p. 10.

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Speculative fiction as a category ranges from ancient works to paradigm-changing and neotraditional works of the 21st century.Barry Baldwin, Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Calgary, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, "Ancient Science Fiction", Shattercolors Literary Review{{Cite web |title=逆援助紹介PARADOX! |url=http://www.paradoxmag.com/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100728035612/http://www.paradoxmag.com/ |archive-date=28 July 2010 |website=paradoxmag.com}} Characteristics of speculative fiction have been recognized in older works whose authors' intentions are now known, or in the social contexts of the stories they tell. An example is the ancient Greek dramatist, Euripides ({{Circa|480|406 BCE}}), whose play Medea seems to have offended Athenian audiences; in this play, he speculated that the titular sorceress Medea killed her own children, as opposed to their being killed by other Corinthians after her departure.This theory of Euripides' invention has gained wide acceptance. See (e.g.) McDermott 1989, 12; Powell 1990, 35; Sommerstein 2002, 16; Griffiths, 2006 81; Ewans 2007, 55.

In historiography, what is now called speculative fiction has previously been termed historical invention,{{Cite web |date=17 January 2005 |title=Mark Wagstaff – Historical invention and political purpose | Re-public: re-imagining democracy – english version |url=http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=126 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116082639/http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=126 |archive-date=16 January 2013 |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=Re-public.gr}} historical fiction, and similar names. These terms have been extensively applied in literary criticism to the works of William Shakespeare.Martha Tuck Rozett, "Creating a Context for Shakespeare with Historical Fiction", Shakespeare Quarterly

Vol. 46, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), pp. 220–227 For example, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he places several characters from different locations and times into the Fairyland of the fictional Merovingian Germanic sovereign Oberon; these characters include the Athenian Duke Theseus, the Amazonian Queen Hippolyta, the English fairy Puck, and the Roman god Cupid.Dorothea Kehler, A midsummer night's dream: critical essays, 2001

In mythography, the concept of speculative fiction has been termed mythopoesis or mythopoeia. This process involves the creative design and development of lore and mythology for works of fiction. The term's definition comes from use by J. R. R. Tolkien; his series of novels, The Lord of the Rings,Adcox, John, "Can Fantasy be Myth? Mythopoeia and The Lord of the Rings" in "The Newsletter of the Mythic Imagination Institute, September/October, 2003" shows an application of the process. Themes common in mythopoeia, such as the supernatural, alternate history, and sexuality, continue to be explored in works produced in modern speculative fiction.Eric Garber, Lyn Paleo Uranian Worlds: A Guide to Alternative Sexuality in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, 2nd Edition, G K Hall: 1990 {{ISBN|978-0-8161-1832-8}}

Speculative fiction in the general sense of hypothetical history, explanation, or ahistorical storytelling has been attributed to authors in ostensibly non-fiction modes since Herodotus of Halicarnassus (fl. 5th century BCE) with his Histories;Herodotus and Myth Conference, Christ Church, Oxford, 2003John M. Marincola, Introduction and Notes, The Histories by Herodotus, tr. Aubrey De Sélincourt, 2007{{Cite web |last=Lendering |first=Jona |title=Herodotus of Halicarnassus |url=https://www.livius.org/he-hg/herodotus/herodotus02.html |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=Livius.org |archive-date=18 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130118090825/http://www.livius.org/he-hg/herodotus/herodotus02.html |url-status=dead }} it was already both created and edited out by early encyclopedic writers such Sima Qian ({{circa|145}} or 135 BCE–86 BCE), author of Shiji.Stephen W. Durrant, The cloudy mirror: tension and conflict in the writings of Sima Qian, 1995Craig A. Lockard, Societies, Networks, and Transitions: A Global History: To 1500, 2007, p. 133.

These examples highlight a caveat—many works that are now viewed as speculative fiction long predated the labelling of the genre. In the broadest sense, the genre's concept does two things: it captures both conscious and unconscious aspects of human psychology in making sense of the world, and it responds to the world by creating imaginative, inventive, and artistic expressions. Such expressions can contribute to practical societal progress through interpersonal influences; social and cultural movements; scientific research and advances; and the philosophy of science.Heather Urbanski, Plagues, apocalypses and bug-eyed monsters: how speculative fiction shows us our nightmares, 2007, pp. 127.Sonu Shamdasani, Cult Fictions: C.G. Jung and the Founding of Analytical Psychology, 1998Relativity, The Special and the General Theory by Albert Einstein (1920), with an introduction by Niger Calder, 2006

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In English-language usage in arts and literature since the mid 20th century, the term speculative fiction has often been attributed to Robert A. Heinlein, who first used it in an editorial in The Saturday Evening Post (on 8 February 1947). In the article, Heinlein used Speculative Fiction as a synonym for science fiction; in a later article, he stated explicitly that his use of the term excluded fantasy. Although Heinlein may have invented the term independently, earlier citations exist. An article in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1889 used the term in reference to Edward Bellamy's novel Looking Backward: 2000–1887 and other works; and an article in the May 1900 issue of The Bookman mentioned that John Uri Lloyd's novel Etidorhpa, or, The End of the Earth had "created a great deal of discussion among people interested in speculative fiction".{{Cite web |date=28 April 2009 |title=Dictionary citations for the term "speculative fiction" |url=http://www.jessesword.com/sf/view/438 |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=Jessesword.com |archive-date=7 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207012608/http://www.jessesword.com/sf/view/438 |url-status=live }} A variant of this term is speculative literature.{{Cite web |title=The Speculative Literature Foundation |url=http://www.speculativeliterature.org/ |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=Speculativeliterature.org |archive-date=4 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204054002/http://www.speculativeliterature.org/ |url-status=live }}

The use of the term speculative fiction to express dissatisfaction with traditional or establishment science fiction was popularized in the 1960s and early 1970s by Judith Merril, as well as other writers and editors connected with the New Wave movement. However, this use of the term became less popular toward the mid-1970s.{{Cite web |title=New Wave |url=http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/dial/sfclass/newave.html |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=Virtual.clemson.edu |archive-date=22 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122094856/http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/dial/sfclass/newave.html |url-status=dead }}

During the 2000s, the term speculative fiction came into wider use as a convenient way to describe a set of genres. However, some writers (such as Margaret Atwood) still distinguish "speculative fiction" as a specifically "no Martians" type of science fiction, "about things that really could happen."{{Cite book |last=Atwood |first=Margaret |url=https://archive.org/details/inotherworldssfh0000atwo_y7y3 |title=In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination |date=2011 |publisher=Nan A. Talese/Doubleday |isbn=978-0-385-53396-6 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/inotherworldssfh0000atwo_y7y3/page/6 6] |url-access=registration}}

The term speculative fiction is also used to describe genres combined into a single narrative or fictional world, such as "science fiction, horror, fantasy...[and]...mystery".{{Cite book |last=Canton |first=James |title=The Literature Book |last2=Cleary |first2=Helen |last3=Kramer |first3=Ann |last4=Laxby |first4=Robin |last5=Loxley |first5=Diana |last6=Ripley |first6=Esther |last7=Todd |first7=Megan |last8=Shaghar |first8=Hila |last9=Valente |first9=Alex |collaboration=Authors |publisher=DK |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-4654-2988-9 |edition=First American |location=New York |pages=343}}

In documenting this broad genre, the Internet Speculative Fiction Database includes a list of different subtypes.

According to publisher statistics, men outnumber women about two to one among English-language speculative fiction writers who seek professional publication. However, the percentages vary considerably by genre, with women outnumbering men in the areas of urban fantasy, paranormal romance and young adult fiction.{{Cite web |last=Crisp |first=Julie |date=10 July 2013 |title=SEXISM IN GENRE PUBLISHING: A PUBLISHER'S PERSPECTIVE |url=http://www.torbooks.co.uk/blog/2013/07/10/sexism-in-genre-publishing-a-publishers-perspective |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150430072612/http://www.torbooks.co.uk/blog/2013/07/10/sexism-in-genre-publishing-a-publishers-perspective |archive-date=30 April 2015 |access-date=29 April 2015 |website=Tor Books }}

Academic journals that publish essays on speculative fiction include Extrapolation and Foundation.{{Cite web |title=SF Foundation Journal | The Science Fiction Foundation |url=https://www.sf-foundation.org/journal |access-date=1 April 2020 |publisher=Sf-foundation.org }}{{Dead link|date=March 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Speculative fiction may include elements from one or more of the following genres:

• Biblical speculative fiction
• Comic genres
• Genre fiction
• List of genres
• Megatext
• Speculative art
• Speculative fiction by writers of color
• Speculative poetry
• Weird fiction

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{{sisterlinks|d=Q9326077|c=Category:Speculative fiction|wikt=speculative fiction|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|n=no|b=no|s=Category:Speculative fiction}}

• [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi Internet Speculative Fiction Database]
• The [http://gutenberg.net.au/sfproject.html SF Page] at Project Gutenberg of Australia

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Category:Fiction by genre