ABSTRACT
As the contemporary late-capitalist cultural environment becomes increasingly technological, its literary realism, aspiring toward a plausible encompassing reflection of this environment, becomes increasingly science-fictional. Technological developments, together with the increasingly accelerating pace of change, have also brought about changes in the way the relative positions of realism and science fiction are being perceived in the context of the contemporary genre system. Following these premises, this chapter focuses on the present fate of cyberpunk science fiction, and fleshes out the historical emergence of a new generic phenomenon that Sherryl Vint has tentatively called non-SF cyberpunk, or, cyberpunk without science fiction. It characterizes this new phenomenon as a fully realist practice that, nevertheless, maintains the science-fictional “feel” of cyberpunk’s earlier, classic incarnation. Finally, this chapter exemplifies the emergence of non-SF cyberpunk in various works of fiction, film, TV series, and other pop-cultural phenomena.
