{ "id": "epzrrnxq7h", "slug": "science-fiction", "title": "Science fiction", "updated": "2026-10-25", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.literature", "label": "Literature and written works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.literature" }, { "id": "culture.literature.sf", "label": "Science fiction (literature)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.literature.sf" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.culture.literature.sf", "label": "Western Europe · 1800 to 1945: Science fiction (literature)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.culture.literature.sf", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800", "label": "Western Europe · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.culture.literature", "label": "Literature and written works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.culture.literature" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.culture.literature.sf", "label": "Science fiction (literature)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.culture.literature.sf" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Science fiction (sci-fi): genre fiction depicting imagined scientific or technological advances and their social impact. Key names: Gernsback's scientifiction, Suvin's novum, Shelley, Verne, Wells, cyberpunk; distinct from fantasy by material plausibility.", "snippet": "Science fiction (sci-fi): genre fiction depicting imagined scientific or technological advances and their social impact. Key names: Gernsback's scientifiction, Suvin's novum, Shelley, Verne, Wells, cyberpunk; distinct from fantasy by material plausibility.", "node": "culture.literature.sf", "markdown": "# Science fiction\n\n**Science fiction** (often shortened to **sci-fi**) is a genre of narrative fiction that depicts imagined scientific or technological developments, such as time travel or artificial intelligence, and explores their impact on society[1](http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026529). It exists as a body of literature tracing its written origins to the Romantic era, as a category of twentieth-century commercial fiction that emerged from the American pulp magazines, and as a dominant form of global screen entertainment[2](https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118300916.wberls004) • [3](https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1479&context=english_fac).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Working definition | Fiction depicting imagined scientific or technological advances (e.g., time travel, artificial intelligence) and their impact on society[1](http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026529) |\n| Coined term | \"Scientifiction\", defined by Hugo Gernsback in the editorial to *Amazing Stories* #1 (April 1926) as \"the Jules Verne, H G Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story – a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision\"[4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/definitions_of_sf) |\n| Scholarly definition | Darko Suvin's \"literature of cognitive estrangement\", organized around a *novum*, a principle of possible difference from reality[3](https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1479&context=english_fac) |\n| First true work | Most critics cite Mary Shelley's *Frankenstein* (1818)[5](https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/science-fiction) |\n| Commercial scale | By the 1970s SF constituted around 10 percent of all English-language fiction published[6](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/history_of_sf) |\n| Screen dominance | SF action spectacles dominated the global box office of the first two decades of the 21st century[3](https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1479&context=english_fac) |\n| Catalogued subgenres | Afrofuturist, apocalyptic, cyberpunk, dystopian, LitRPG, space opera, steampunk, superhero, and time-travel fiction, among others[1](http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026529) |\n\n## Definition and scope\n\nNo single definition of science fiction holds across critics, and the competing definitions differ in what they treat as the genre's core. The Library of Congress genre record defines it functionally, as fiction depicting imagined scientific or technological advances and their impact on society[1](http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026529). The Cambridge Dictionary offers a reader-facing version: books, movies, or cartoons about an imagined future, especially about space travel or other planets, or writing about imagined developments in science and their effect on life, especially in the future[7](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/science-fiction).\n\n**Suvin's novum.** The most influential academic definition comes from Darko Suvin, a scholar of comparative literature whose 1970s work is regarded by most 21st-century scholars as the primary origin point of academic SF studies. Suvin defined the genre as \"the literature of cognitive estrangement\": SF posits some principle of possible difference from reality as we know it, which he calls a *novum*[3](https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1479&context=english_fac). Carl Freedman later proposed replacing Suvin's \"cognition\" with \"the cognition effect\", arguing that the dividing line between SF and fantasy depends on a text's rhetorical attitude rather than an external epistemological judgment[3](https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1479&context=english_fac).\n\n**Institutional delineation.** *The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction* deliberately avoids a sharp boundary, delineating SF as \"an interwoven array of texts set in worlds which do not exist but arguably could\"; it notes that widespread agreement on a definition emerged only after the founding of the specialist SF pulp magazines[4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/definitions_of_sf). A 2020 peer-reviewed article in *SAGE Open* proposed an empirical revision centered on *techne*, arguing that the content diversity of the genre means works cannot be dismissed from the SF canon on stylistic or literary grounds[8](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244020963057).\n\n## Boundaries with fantasy and speculative fiction\n\nIn practice the SF/fantasy boundary often reduces to a labeling test: if teleportation is attributed to magical powers, the story is fantasy, whereas if the same effect is attributed to technological innovation, it is SF[3](https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1479&context=english_fac). Suvin's novum makes the same distinction systematic: a fantasy story's principle of difference is not possible from a scientific, materialist perspective, while SF's must be materially plausible[3](https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1479&context=english_fac). A definition cited by the Library of Congress states the criterion directly: the attempt at scientific and technological plausibility is the feature that distinguishes science fiction from earlier speculative writings and from contemporary speculative genres such as fantasy and horror[1](http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026529).\n\nThe term **speculative fiction** itself carries three historically located meanings: a human-centered subgenre of SF, a genre distinct from SF focused exclusively on possible futures, and a supercategory embracing fantasy, SF, horror, and their derivatives such as dystopia, alternate history, steampunk, and magic realism[9](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/61883/chapter/547841578). Which sense applies depends on who is using the term and when.\n\n## History: origins and proto-SF\n\nScholarship traces written SF's origins to the Romantic era while also recognizing it as a category of twentieth-century commercial fiction that emerged out of the American pulp magazines[2](https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118300916.wberls004). Scholars variously connect [Mary Shelley](https://www.edgepedia.org/mary-shelley)'s *Frankenstein* (1818) and [Thomas More](https://www.edgepedia.org/thomas-more)'s *Utopia* (1516) to the genre's origins, but most agree that SF's development is primarily a phenomenon of the twentieth century, acknowledging [Jules Verne](https://www.edgepedia.org/jules-verne) in France and H. G. Wells in England as proto-science-fiction writers[10](https://keywords.nyupress.org/childrens-literature/essay/science-fiction/).\n\n**Frankenstein's contested status.** Most critics cite Mary Shelley's 1818 novel as the first true work of science fiction[5](https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/science-fiction), yet other scholarship treats the genre as primarily twentieth-century and describes [Frankenstein](https://www.edgepedia.org/frankenstein) only as variously connected to its development[10](https://keywords.nyupress.org/childrens-literature/essay/science-fiction/). The disagreement is unresolved.\n\n**Wells's synthesis.** The figure whose work had a truly transformative impact on early SF was [H. G. Wells](https://www.edgepedia.org/h-g-wells) (1866–1946), in many of whose stories, published from the 1890s onward, the Gothic, the Utopia, and the Anticipation traditions are closely bound together and reworked into a form all readers today recognize as inarguably SF; most later SF has adhered to his balance between scientific and sociological speculation[6](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/history_of_sf). One later survey frames the tradition as running from Shelley's *Frankenstein* (1818) through [Gene Roddenberry](https://www.edgepedia.org/gene-roddenberry)'s *Star Trek* (1966– ) to the [Marvel Cinematic Universe](https://www.edgepedia.org/marvel-cinematic-universe) (2008– ), marked by a dialectic between utopian optimism and apocalyptic pessimism[3](https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1479&context=english_fac).\n\nThe term itself has a layered history. The *Oxford English Dictionary* cites an isolated 1851 reference to \"Science-Fiction\"; accounts differ on the phrase's early attestations, though [Hugo Gernsback](https://www.edgepedia.org/hugo-gernsback) is generally credited with coining it for the genre[10](https://keywords.nyupress.org/childrens-literature/essay/science-fiction/) • [11](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/science-fiction).\n\n## Pulps, Golden Age, New Wave, and cyberpunk\n\n**The pulp foundation.** Science fiction became a commercial publishing category in the United States with the founding of the first SF magazine, *Amazing Stories*, in 1926[5](https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/science-fiction). In the editorial to its first issue, Gernsback coined \"Scientifiction\" for the Verne, Wells, and Poe type of story, \"a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision\"[4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/definitions_of_sf). The term \"science fiction\" came into general use in the 1930s, with an early appearance in Gernsback's editorial to #1 of *Wonder Stories* (June 1929); its first use on a standalone book cover may have been *The Girl from Mars* (1929) by Miles J. Breuer and Jack Williamson[4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/definitions_of_sf).\n\n**The book boom.** The 1950s saw an SF book-publishing boom, first through specialist small presses and then mass-market publishers, largely reprinting material from the pulp magazines[6](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/history_of_sf). By the 1970s SF constituted around 10 percent of all English-language fiction published, and with the growing readership came greater public acceptance of SF as \"respectable\"[6](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/history_of_sf). Among magazines, *Asimov's Science Fiction*, founded in 1977 as *Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine*, was the only new US SF magazine of its era to approach the quality of the \"big three\": *Analog*, *The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction*, and *Galaxy*[6](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/history_of_sf).\n\n**Film and the 1980s.** Film successes including *2001: A Space Odyssey* (1968), *Star Wars* (1977), *Close Encounters of the Third Kind* (1977), and *E.T.* (1982) catalyzed SF's commercial success and its 1980s media packaging[6](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/history_of_sf). The most significant SF development of the 1980s was the advent of cyberpunk, with [William Gibson](https://www.edgepedia.org/william-gibson) and Bruce Sterling cast as its prophets; despite media hyperbole, cyberpunk represented a real invigoration of the genre and came close to revitalizing hard SF[6](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/history_of_sf). Gibson's seminal cyberpunk novel *Neuromancer* was published in 1984[5](https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/science-fiction). The New Wave of the 1960s–70s and cyberpunk are treated as distinct movements in standard genre histories, which typically cover nineteenth-century, pulp, [Golden Age](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-age), New Wave, feminist, and cyberpunk SF in sequence[12](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781134211791_A24932667/preview-9781134211791_A24932667.pdf).\n\n## Subgenres and forms\n\nThe Library of Congress genre vocabulary subdivides science fiction into named forms including Afrofuturist fiction, apocalyptic fiction, cyberpunk fiction, dystopian fiction, LitRPG, space operas, steampunk fiction, subterranean fiction, superhero fiction, and time-travel fiction[1](http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026529). The SFE's own delineation, \"an interwoven array of texts set in worlds which do not exist but arguably could\", accommodates all of them[4](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/definitions_of_sf).\n\n## Awards, fandom, and institutions\n\nThe **Hugo Awards** are presented by the World Science Fiction Society, which for over four decades has chosen its winners by votes from members of the World Science Fiction Convention[9](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/61883/chapter/547841578) • [14](https://www.thehugoawards.org/about/). In 2001 the Society opened what one scholar calls a new chapter by selecting [J. K. Rowling](https://www.edgepedia.org/j-k-rowling)'s *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire* (2000) and [Ang Lee](https://www.edgepedia.org/ang-lee)'s film *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* (2000) as [Hugo Award](https://www.edgepedia.org/hugo-award) winners, works outside science fiction proper, marking a rapprochement between fantasy and SF within the broader speculative-fiction field[9](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/61883/chapter/547841578).\n\nNational awards sit alongside the Hugos. In Canada, since 1980 the principal literary award for SF has been the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award, the **Aurora**, voted on by readers, with six professional awards given each year in English and French[5](https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/science-fiction). Canadian winners of the Hugo include Spider Robinson's \"By Any Other Name\" (1977), \"Stardance\" (1978), and \"Melancholy Elephants\" (1983), and William Gibson's *Neuromancer* (novel, 1985); Canadian Nebula-winning novels include *Neuromancer* and Robert J. Sawyer's *The Terminal Experiment*[5](https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/science-fiction).\n\n## By the numbers\n\nTwo quantified measures anchor the genre's scale. In publishing, SF constituted around 10 percent of all English-language fiction published by the 1970s[6](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/history_of_sf). On screen, SF action spectacles dominated the global box office of the first two decades of the twenty-first century, making SF arguably the most popular narrative genre in existence[3](https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1479&context=english_fac).\n\n## Naming across languages\n\nThe genre's name travels with local inflections. French usage retains the hybrid form *science-fiction*, and the *Encyclopédie Universalis* characterizes the SF effect as situated near the marvelous, in which the universal acceptance of the plausible is replaced by surprise and revelation[13](https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/science-fiction/).\n\n## References\n\n1. [Science fiction, LC Linked Data Service, Library of Congress](http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026529)\n2. [Science Fiction, Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Literature entry](https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118300916.wberls004)\n3. [Science Fiction, Marquette University faculty publication](https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1479&context=english_fac)\n4. [Definitions of SF, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/definitions_of_sf)\n5. [Science Fiction, The Canadian Encyclopedia](https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/science-fiction)\n6. [History of SF, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/history_of_sf)\n7. [SCIENCE FICTION definition, Cambridge English Dictionary](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/science-fiction)\n8. [An Empirical Revision of the Definition of Science Fiction: It Is All in the Techne, SAGE Open (2020)](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244020963057)\n9. [Speculative Fiction, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/61883/chapter/547841578)\n10. [Science Fiction, Keywords for Children's Literature, NYU Press](https://keywords.nyupress.org/childrens-literature/essay/science-fiction/)\n11. [science fiction, Wordorigins.org](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/science-fiction)\n12. [Adam Roberts, Science Fiction: Second Edition, Routledge (preview)](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781134211791_A24932667/preview-9781134211791_A24932667.pdf)\n13. [SCIENCE-FICTION, Encyclopédie Universalis](https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/science-fiction/)\n14. [Introduction](https://www.thehugoawards.org/about/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Science fiction (literature)*\n\n*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/science-fiction", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/science-fiction.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Science fiction\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/science-fiction. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Science fiction](https://www.edgepedia.org/science-fiction)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/science-fiction](https://www.edgepedia.org/science-fiction). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Science fiction\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/science-fiction. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Science fiction: genre fiction depicting imagined scientific or technological advances and their social impact. Key names: Gernsback's scientifiction, Suvin's novum, Shelley, Verne, Wells, cyberpunk; distinct from fantasy by material plausibility." }