ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is concerned with the reading of science fiction. This involves many different aspects and dimensions, each of which requires different approaches. It arranged to reflect the different levels of analysis involved in the poetics of science fiction. The book discusses the presentation of dated futures in science fiction and tackles the interaction of language and science fiction directly, by focusing on those texts that are concerned to manipulate style in an unusual or mimetic way. A model of narrative comprehension is adapted for the peculiarities of science fiction, with a discussion of possible worlds and implications for the linguistic theory of reference. The book explores the fundamentally metaphorical nature of knowledge manipulation, and places it into its global context using the approach of cognitive poetics.
