Alternate History
Alternate History

Author: Kathleen Singles

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-10-14

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 3110272474

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While, strictly speaking, Alternate Histories are not Future Narratives, their analysis can shed a clear light on why Future Narratives are so different from past narratives. Trying to have it both ways, most Alternate Histories subscribe to a conflicting set of beliefs concerning determinism and freedom of choice, contingency and necessity. For the very first time, Alternate Histories are here discussed against the backdrop of their Other, Future Narratives. The volume contains in-depth analyses of the classics of the genre,such as Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle and Philip Roth's The Plot against America, as well as less widely-discussed manifestations of the genre, such as Dieter Kühn's N, Christian Kracht's Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten, and Quentin Tarantino's film Inglourious Basterds.

The Alternate History
The Alternate History

Author: Karen Hellekson

Publisher: Kent State University Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9780873386838

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What would the world be like is history had taken a different course? Science fiction literature has long contemplated this question, and this text analyzes alternate history science fiction through a variety of historical models. It raises questions of narrative, writers, temporality and time.

Relativism, Alternate History, and the Forgetful Reader
Relativism, Alternate History, and the Forgetful Reader

Author: Derek Thiess

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2014-11-25

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0739196189

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The writer of alternate history asks “what if?” What if one historical event were different, what would the world look like today? In a similar way, the postmodern philosopher of history suggests that history is literature, or that if we read certain historical details differently we would get a distinctly different interpretation of past events. While the science fiction alternate history means to illuminate the past, to increase our understanding of past events, however, the postmodern approach to history typically suggests that such understanding is impossible. To the postmodern philosopher, history is like literature in that it does not offer the reader access to the past, but only an interesting story. Building on criticism that suggests personal psychological reasons for this obscuring the past, and using a literary theory of readership, this book challenges the postmodern approach to history. It channels the speculative power of science fiction to read the works of postmodern philosophy of history as alternate histories themselves, and to map the limits and pathology of their forgetful reading of the past.

The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History
The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Author: Jack Dann

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-07-13

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 1350351377

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A comprehensive guide to the speculative sub-genre of alternate history fiction, this book maps the unique terrain of this vibrant mode of storytelling and then explains how to write it. First giving a concise conceptual overview and the critical tools to differentiate the different forms of counterfactual fiction, Jack Dann lays out the 'tricks of the trade' such 'Heinleining', how to create recognizable 'divergent points' and how to employ paratextual elements and 'layering' to overcome readers' unfamiliarity with invented counterfactual events and cultures. Alongside this, Dann takes you step-by-step through a complete short story to demonstrate, line-by-line, how alternative history fiction works. As well as Dann's exacting methodology for writing professional quality alternate history stories, this book also features a live-on-the-page Q&A with some of the most esteemed alternate history writers working today, including Kim Stanley Robinson, John Birmingham and Lisa Goldstein among many others, who will detail their own particular hacks, theories, processes, methods and strategies. Combining extensive and deep knowledge of the field with accessible writing advice, this is the ultimate guidebook to the broad and complex sub-genre of counterfactual and alterative history fiction.

Post-9/11 Historical Fiction and Alternate History Fiction
Post-9/11 Historical Fiction and Alternate History Fiction

Author: Pei-chen Liao

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-09-19

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 3030524922

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Drawing on theories of historiography, memory, and diaspora, as well as from existing genre studies, this book explores why contemporary writers are so fascinated with history. Pei-chen Liao considers how fiction contributes to the making and remaking of the transnational history of the U.S. by thinking beyond and before 9/11, investigating how the dynamics of memory, as well as the emergent present, influences readers’ reception of historical fiction and alternate history fiction and their interpretation of the past. Set against the historical backdrop of WWII, the Vietnam War, and the War on Terror, the novels under discussion tell Jewish, Japanese, white American, African, Muslim, and Native Americans’ stories of trauma and survival. As a means to transmit memories of past events, these novels demonstrate how multidirectional memory can be not only collective but connective, as exemplified by the echoes that post-9/11 readers hear between different histories of violence that the novels chronicle, as well as between the past and the present.

The Ancient World in Alternative History and Counterfactual Fictions
The Ancient World in Alternative History and Counterfactual Fictions

Author: Alberto J. Quiroga Puertas

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2024-08-22

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1350281646

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Focusing in turn on history, powerful individuals, under-represented voices and the arts, the essays in this collection cover a wide variety of modern and contemporary narrative fiction from Jo Walton and L. Sprague De Camp to T. S. Chaudhry and Catherynne M. Valente. Chapters look into the question of chance versus determinism in the unfolding of historical events, the role individuals play in shaping a society or occasion, and the way art and literature symbolise important messages in counterfactual histories. They also show how uchronic narratives can take advantage of modern literary techniques to reveal new and relevant aspects of the past, giving voices to marginalised minorities and suppressed individuals of the ancient world. Counterfactual fiction and uchronic narratives have been largely up until now the domain of literary critics. However, these modes of literature are here analysed by scholars of Ancient History, Egyptology and Classics, shedding important new light on how cultures of the ancient world have been (and still are) perceived, and to what extent our conceptions of the past are used to explore alternate presents and futures. Alternate history entices the imagination of the public by suggesting hypothetical scenarios that never occurred, underlining a latent tension between reality and imagination, and between determinism and contingency. This interest has resulted in a growing number of publications that gauge the impact of what-if narratives, and this one is the first to give scholars of the ancient world centre-stage.

Turning Points—Actual and Alternate Histories
Turning Points—Actual and Alternate Histories

Author: Rodney P. Carlisle

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2007-09-26

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1851098860

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This fascinating work is a series of explorations of key events in the adminstrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, each of which speculates on what might have happened if events had unfolded differently. The Reagan Era explores a time that saw the rise of the political conservatism that has dominated U.S. politics in recent years, as well as the end of the Cold War, which drove American foreign policy for nearly a half century. What if Jimmy Carter had successfully navigated the energy shortage and the Iranian hostage crisis? What if the assassination attempt on Reagan had succeed? What if Iran–Contra had not become a scandal? These are among the specific topics examined in the book, which looks at 11 crucial events and speculates on the effects of alternative outcomes. By showing how easily the world might be different, The Reagan Era reveals the lasting impact of that era's defining moments.

The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction
The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction

Author: Adam Roberts

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-03-30

Total Pages: 577

ISBN-13: 1135228361

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The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction is a comprehensive overview of the history and study of science fiction. It outlines major writers, movements, and texts in the genre, established critical approaches and areas for future study. Fifty-six entries by a team of renowned international contributors are divided into four parts which look, in turn, at: history – an integrated chronological narrative of the genre’s development theory – detailed accounts of major theoretical approaches including feminism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, postcolonialism, posthumanism and utopian studies issues and challenges – anticipates future directions for study in areas as diverse as science studies, music, design, environmentalism, ethics and alterity subgenres – a prismatic view of the genre, tracing themes and developments within specific subgenres. Bringing into dialogue the many perspectives on the genre The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction is essential reading for anyone interested in the history and the future of science fiction and the way it is taught and studied.