Wagner College English professor Susan Bernardo has edited a new book, "Environments in Science Fiction: Essays on Alternative Spaces," published by McFarland.
How do spaces in science fiction -- both built and unbuilt -- help shape the relationships between humans, other animals and their shared environments? That is the question underlying the essays in this book.
Spaces provide a sense of place or belonging, and they play major roles in many science fiction works. This book focuses especially on depictions of the future that help us imagine ways of reinventing ourselves and our perspectives, especially the way we view new environments. Its spaces include dystopias, but often move beyond them.
"There are ecocritical texts that deal with space/place, and science fiction criticism that deals with dystopias, but there is no other collection that focuses on the intersection of the two," says the book's publisher.
Visit McFarland's Web page for "Environments in Science Fiction," where you will find information about the book and the author, bibliographic details and the table of contents.
Susan Bernardo, Ph.D., is a professor of English and chairs the English Department at Wagner College, where she teaches courses on science fiction, 19th century British literature, and literary theory.
Previously, Bernardo co-authored "Ursula K. Le Guin: A Critical Companion" (Greenwood, 2006) and co-edited "Gender Reconstructions: Pornography and Perversions in Literature and Culture" (Ashgate, 2002). She has written an essay on Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" and Nicola Griffith's "Slow River," and a chapter on C.J. Cherryh's "Cyteen." She has also presented papers at conferences that focus on science fiction television.
This new volume includes Bernardo's essay, "A Case of Terraphilia: Longing for Place and Community in Philip K. Dick’s 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'"