Science Fiction Literature

Mercer County Community College Library

Spring 2015

Phone: 609-570-3550

Compiled by: Dan Calandro 

Course Syllabus

 

Readings

 

"Keanu's Cartesian Meditations" and other readings from Twenty Questions. Edited by G. Lee Bowie, et. al.

 

Study Guide for Neuromancer by Rich Erlich.

 

"From Chandler to Gibson: How Noir Led to Cyberpunk" by Danny Bowes

 

"But Who Can Replace a Man?" by Brian Aldiss

 

"Tomorrow is Waiting" by Holli Mintzer

 

Philosophy Study Guide (This will bake your brisket, beware!) 

 

"Feminisms and Gender Studies" from A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature by Wilfred L. Guerin et. al. 2011.

 

The Conversation: Novelists Adam Sternbergh and Lev Grossman on Genre Fiction and Theories of Nerd-dom

  

Reference Collection

These books are available for in-library use only and do not circulate. However, photocopies can be made of the required pages.

 

Encyclopedia of Science Fiction edited by Don D'Ammassa call number: PS374 .S35 D33.

 

Anatomy of Wonder: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction edited by Neil Barron call number: PN3433.8 A52

 

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Writers edited by Marie MacNee call number: Z5917 .S36 S29. Two volumes.

 

Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Robin Reid call number: PS374 .S35 W63. Two volumes.

 

The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works and Wondersedited by Gary Westfahl call number: PS374 .S35 G74. Three volumes. 

 

Circulating Books

A selection of books available that can be checked out. Check out periods are for 3 weeks. Books can be renewed 1 time for a period of 1 week. Borrowing privilege information here.

 

Science Fiction: The New Critical Idiom by Charles Adams call number: P96 .S34 R58.

 

Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fictionedited by Mark Bould and China Mieville call number: PN3433.6 R34.

 

Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fictionby John Rieder call number: PS374 .S35 R45.

 

The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction edited by Mark Bould et. al. call number: PN3433.5 R685

 

From Utopia to Apocalypse: Science Fiction and the Politics of Catastropheby Peter Paik call number: PN3433.6 P35.

 

The Seven Beauties of Science Fictionby Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. call number: PN3433.5 C75 S48.

 

Electronic Resources

Mercer County Community College’s electronic databases provide access to peer-reviewed, scholarly content. Many articles can be downloaded in PDF format. All articles can be printed and e-mailed to any e-mail address.

 

Databases

Literary Reference Center

Provides plot summaries, book reviews and literature criticism. Articles come from both scholarly, peer-reviewed journal as well as reference works such as Masterplots.

 

Literature Resource Center

Provides plot summaries, book reviews and literature criticism. Articles come from both scholarly, peer-reviewed journal as well as reference works such as Contemporary Literary Criticism.

 

Academic Search Premier

ASP contains over 4,000 scholarly publications in a variety of subject areas. If you have trouble finding resources in this database it might be best to add the keywords fantasy or literature to your search.

 

ProQuest Central

ProQuest Central, like Academic Search Premier, contains several thousand peer-reviewed publications in a variety of subject areas. Again adding the keywords fantasy and literature to your search is advisable if you get too few results.

 

JStor

JStor contains only peer-reviewed publications focusing on the liberal arts as well as some science subject areas. Be aware that JStor has a substantial embargo period of between 1 to 5 years. For example, the journal American Quarterly is available in JStor from volume 1 (1949) through volume 57 (2005).

 

Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database

A searchable index of science fiction and fantasy literature history, criticism, commentary, fan writings and some reviews are all included. Since this is only an index articles must be requested through inter-library loan.

 

Journals

A selection of peer-reviewed, scholarly journals and full-text journals available through the MCCC databases and the internet.

 

Fantasy & Science Fiction

 

American Literature

 

Extrapolation

 

Journal of Modern Literature

 

Twentieth Century Literature

 

Authors

 Searching for specific authors can be done the same way as search for specific works of fiction, just type in the author's name. Several prominent science fiction authors are listed below along with their websites and/or article links.

 

James Gunn and the Center for the Study of Science Fiction also check out the Science Fiction Websites and Other Resources from the Center.

 

Harlan Ellison

 

Minister Faust

 

Octavia Butler

 

Suzanne Collins 

 

Themes & Works

Searching for themes and works is similar to searching for any of the other previous topics. Themes and works can be found both on the internet and in the Mercer County Community College databases.

 

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence, AI, the Singularity, machine intelligence, science fiction, speculative fiction, literature, criticism, technology

 

In order to conduct a good search combine the keywords with the Boolean operator "and". This will return results (articles, webpages, books etc.) that deal with both topics in the same source. By using the field limiters in the MCCC databases searches can become very precise and return results related to very specific topics. For a sample search follow this link.