Cityscapes of the Future: Urban Spaces in Science Fiction offers an examination of the central role played by urban spaces in science fictional narratives in various media forms from the literary to the ludic to the cinematic. Our contributors reflect on the ways diverse urban scenarios are central to the narrativesâ science fictional imaginary and consider the pivotal roles cityscapes play in underscoring major thematic concerns, such as political struggles, social inequality and other cultural epistemologies. The chapters in the collection are divided into three sections examining the city and the body, cities of estrangement, and cities of the imagination.
Yael Maurer, Ph.D. (2009), Tel Aviv University, is a lecturer at the English and American Studies department at Tel Aviv University, Israel. She has published The Science Fictional Dimensions of Salman Rushdie (2014) and articles on Hitchcock, Dickens and Philip Roth, among others.
Meyrav Koren-Kuik is a doctoral candidate at the Porter School of Cultural Studies, Tel Aviv University. Her main research areas are Victorian literature, and Science Fiction.
âThis collection is a good addition to the discourse of understanding how setting, especially urban setting, plays an important role in how we experience sf narrativesâ
- Alison Fraser, Trent University, Canada in Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 47.1 2020 pp. 137-140
AcknowledgementsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction âMeyrav Koren-Kuik and Yael Maurer
Part 1: The City and the Body
Urban Twinship: The Body of the Futuristic City in Jeff VanderMeerâs Veniss Underground âInbar KaminskyPast Future Cityscapes: Narratives of the Post-Human in Post-Urban Environments âEduardo Barros-GrelaArchitecture of Punishment: Dystopian Cities Marking the Body âElsa Bouet
Part 2: Cities of Estrangement
Time Travel, Dystopia, and the Manhattan Skyscraper in George Allan Englandâs The Last New Yorkers and Murray Leinsterâs âThe Runaway Skyscraperâ âRosalind FurslandWires are the New Filth: The Rebirth of Dickensâ London in Cyberspace âKeith Daniel HarrisCity of Lights No More: Dystopian Paris in French Science Fiction âHenri-Simon Blanc-HoangSpatiality in the Cyber-World of William Gibson âImola Bülgözdi
Part 3: Cities of Imagination
âDivided Against Itselfâ: Dual Urban Chronotopes âElana GomelExperiencing the Cityscapes and Rural Landscapes as âCitizensâ of The Hunger Games Storyworld âNatalie KrikowaâFinal Menâ, Racialised Fears & the Control of Monstrous Cityscapes in Post-Apocalyptic Hollywood Films âGlen DonnarImagination Reloaded: Transfiguring Urban Space into Virtual Space in the tv Series Caprica âTorsten CaenersThe Dame Wore Skyscrapers: The Science-Fictional City as a Detective Story âShawn Edrei
The book is geared towards an academic audience but would also be of interest to a non-academic audience interested in science fiction as a crucial mode which has become the central cultural representative of our time.