ABSTRACT
As befits a literary genre invented not only by a woman but by a very young woman, for Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (1819) is unquestionably the foundational text of anglophone science fiction (SF), SF has never attained higher literary status. Yet paradoxically its very marginality has provided a cultural space for innovation relatively unpoliced by literary criticism. Thus when the distinguished novelist Doris Lessing (1979; 1980; 1981) made a foray into the genre, this part of her literary output was more or less ignored. However with the advent of cultural studies, with its distaste for dividing culture hierarchically, SF came under academic scrutiny with at least two journals devoted exclusively to the field. Thus from the Times Literary Supplement I learn that the reviewer considers the most recent issue of Science Fiction Studies as lucidly written and jargon free, further that it does not ‘labour under the misapprehension that writing academic essays about science fiction is going to bring about a global revolution and inaugurate a new, non-hegemonic discourse’ (Irwin, 2000 pp.50-56). Although it is difficult to entertain seriously the idea that anyone one actually thinks that an academic essay could be quite so miraculous in its effectiveness, I too want to stand up for SF (or rather some kinds of SF) as a laboratory for exploring alternative futures.
