Science fiction genres

In the encyclopedia of fiction edited by Vl. Gakova proposed the following classification. The science fiction genre is divided into “ hard ”, “natural-scientific”, “scientific-technical” or “ soft ”, “humanitarian”; as well as on the “science fiction ideas”, “ utopia ”, “ anti-utopia ”, “warning novel” and others. Fantasy is divided into “fairy-tale”, “ mythological ”, “ heroic ”, “ fantasy of sword and magic ”, “ terrible ”, “ black ” (as opposed to “high”), “game” and others ^[6] . A similar classification is found in some foreign sources. In addition to the above, J. Cluth in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction lists such subgenres of science fiction as lost worlds , cyberpunk , space opera , scientific fantasy , new wave , planetary science fiction , slipstream , steampunk , fiction and others ^[7] . From time to time, new trends and genre markers are born among science fiction writers. As an example of relatively fresh domestic “inventions”, we can mention turbo-realism or “ alternative geography ” that appeared with the light hand of A. Gromov .

Konstantin Mzareulov in the book Fiction: General Course divided all science fiction into 6 subgenres: science fiction , space opera , fantasy , horror novel (horror), action and thriller, erotic fiction, conditional science fiction and works at the intersection of genres ^[8] .

William Godshock divides all science fiction into four groups: 1) “pure fantasy”, where science fiction is the goal in itself and where any ideas play a minimal role; 2) philosophical fantasy, where fantastic images and situations turn out to be a means of demonstrating and developing some philosophical ideas and concepts; 3) socio-critical fiction (critical fantasy); in works of this kind, fantastic images also serve as a means, but not of philosophical search and reasoning; they are a form of copyright trial of reality; according to Godshock, this kind of science fiction is already directly bringing us closer to science fiction; and finally, 4) realistic science fiction, which is science fiction. It is based on extrapolation and the author’s attempts to predict the future ^[9] .

Such a problematic and thematic approach is useful in reviews of science fiction books, but its use leads to fragmentation of the rubrication and replacement of the analysis of the subclasses of science fiction with their description. Therefore, since the 1970s, one of the priorities of literary criticism has been attempts at structural, artistic and functional classification of the genre ^[6] .

Basic Fiction Classification

The simplest and earliest version of the classification reduces the whole variety of fiction to two types: “ scientific ” ( English science fiction ) and “ pure ” ( English fantasy ) ^[6] . These two types of fiction differ in the way they recreate reality ^[10] . E. Kovtun, in turn, contrasts the fantasy genre not with science fiction, but rational ^[11] , which includes, in addition to science fiction (sometimes called sci-fi or hard ) - social and other varieties of the genre ^[12] . Tatyana Chernysheva regarded fantasy and horror (horror) as a fairy-tale type of narrative, and science fiction as a story about the surprising and the unusual.

Often there is a synthesis of rational / science fiction and fantasy ^{[13] [14] [15]} .

Options

There are more fractional classifications of fiction by type of fiction ^[16] .

D. Wallheim, a well-known author and researcher of Western fiction, distinguishes between “literature of the possible” (science fiction), “literature of the miraculous and mysterious” (weird fantasy) and the narration of “obviously impossible” (pure fantasy) - that is, grotesque, nonsense, game imagination ^[16] .

Mikhail Nazarenko proposed an alternative scale of "fantasticness": the border zone between science fiction and realism ; "Pure" fiction , where the fantastic is an integral part of the fantasy world that does not need scientific or magical justification; religious fiction (the intervention of divine or demonic forces) and mysticism ( supernatural forces not related to a particular religion ); alternative story ; science fiction ; fantasy (worlds based on myths and legends ) and scientific fantasy (a hybrid genre where magic has a scientific explanation) ^[17] .

This classification is close enough to that given by T. Chernysheva in the book “The Nature of Fantasy”, dividing fantastic images into three groups: those associated with fairy tales and pagan beliefs, with the medieval mythology of monotheistic religions and popular superstitions, and with refraction of the scientific interpretation of the world in the mass consciousness. ^[16] .

Olga Chigirinskaya considers this or that combination of characteristic chronotopes to be the defining sign of fiction. Utopia (impossible place), dormancy (impossible time) and acceleration (impossible thing in the emphasized real chronotope). One or another use of these techniques gives rise to subgenres of science fiction. In her opinion, such subgenres of science fiction as fantasy and space opera differ only in the choice of the topos of time. For fantasy, such a topos is the legendary past of our world, and for space opera - a kind of conditional future ^[18] .

A distinctive feature of science fiction (Kovtun has rational fiction) is the rationality, persuasiveness and validity of the fantastic assumption, it is the "fantasy of the possible" about theoretically feasible ideas. In the encyclopedia of science fiction edited by Vladimir Gakov, the science fiction genre is divided into “ hard ”, “natural-scientific”, “scientific-technical” or “ soft ”, “humanitarian”; as well as on the “science fiction ideas”, “ utopia ”, “ anti-utopia ”, “warning novel” and others ^[6] .

Donald Wallheim distinguishes the following four groups in science fiction: 1) imaginary travels; 2) foresight of the future; 3) extraordinary inventions; 4) social satire ^[9] .

The main division of scientific (in terms of E. Kovtun - rational) science fiction occurs according to the issues under consideration, solid science fiction and social science fiction ^[19] . Hanline in 1947 proposed the use of the term speculative fiction for science fiction, in which scientific and technological advances serve only as a means to model new causes for human action. In the future, this term acquired a meaning similar to the term proposed by Elena Kovtun rational fiction , in this genre began to include hard scientific and soft humanitarian fiction (and nowadays - often also fantasy, using it as a synonym for fiction) ^[20] . Konstantin Mzareulov proposed to single out works whose fantastic assumption is difficult to reduce to science or magic into a special subgenre - conditional fiction ^[21] .

Gary K. Wolfe's in his work Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy ^[22] identifies more than 30 varieties of science fiction , not including the hybrid genre of science fiction .

Prominent representatives: Robert Anson Heinlein , Isaac Asimov , Ray Bradbury , Arthur Clark , Ivan Antonovich Efremov , Alexander Romanovich Belyaev .

Hard Science Fiction

In solid science fiction, the fantastic assumption is the end in itself of the work and plays an independent role that does not allow allegorical meaning. A feature of solid science fiction is a detailed description of discoveries and inventions, role assignment of characters ^[23] . In solid science fiction, the emphasis is on the description of a fantastic assumption, which is more convincing and logical in comparison with social science fiction ^[24] . In the narrow sense of the word, a genre revealing the impact on the life of people of various scientific and technical inventions. Frequent stories of science fiction: flights to other planets, robotics, etc. Based on the achievements of science and scientific myths . Fantastic elements get a rational explanation and look believable ^[9] . V. Chumakov, in the framework of science fiction, distinguishes science fiction (studies the interaction of the artificial environment and man) and biological science fiction (changes in the biological characteristics of a person and the consequences associated with this) ^[25] .

Social Fiction

The fantastic assumption, although it is an indispensable element of social science fiction, fulfills the supporting role of an instrument, not an end in itself. The main goal of social science fiction is to reveal the laws of the development of a society that has fallen into new and unusual conditions for humanity, to study the development of human civilization, the essence of man, his interaction with extraterrestrial intelligence and nature. Social science fiction is more connected not with the natural sciences, but with the humanistic direction of literature. Kovtun considers social criticism and concern for the fate of humanity to be the tasks of social science fiction. Unlike hard science fiction, social science fiction is characterized by global and humanistic issues, more elaborate characters, a combination of irony, humor and satire, complex plot schemes, the use of intellectual games and paradoxes ^[26] . In social science fiction, the role of science fiction is diminishing and often turns into a formal symbol of belonging to science fiction ^[24] . Bright varieties are utopia and dystopia .

Examples: Immortal Corporation by Robert Sheckley , “ 451 degrees Fahrenheit ” by Ray Bradbury, “ City Doomed ” by the Strugatsky brothers .

In Anglo-American science fiction, there are many subgroups within fantasy: dream fiction (literally “dream literature”), “fairy tales”, ghost tales (stories about perfumes), horror tales (“black” fiction, matching with “Gothic” "Novel) ^[16] ," mythological "," heroic "," fiction of sword and magic "," terrible "," black "(as opposed to" high ")," game "and others ^{[27] [6]} .

Washington Irving distinguishes five groups of works of fantasy: the first group - works based on impossible transformations, personal metamorphoses; the second group - depicting non-existent and implausible societies; the third group - works in which the author looks at the world through the eyes of a naive creature of a child, animal, Don Quixote; The fourth group - works in which a literary parody is used or the intentional “violation of an established historical fact” is presented; the fifth group - works that tell of supernatural forces in the real or imaginary world ^[9] .

Here is one of the attempts to generalize different ways of classifying fantasy according to one or another of the attributes:

• According to the plot-thematic principle: epic fantasy , dark fantasy , mythological fantasy , mystical fantasy and romantic fantasy.
• According to mythological coloring: Slavic fantasy , Scandinavian fantasy and others.
• By time and place of action: historical fantasy and urban fantasy .
• On the axiological (value) plane: heroic fantasy , humorous and parody fantasy.
• In terms of worldview: scientific fantasy , techno-fantasy , and such currents of Russian science fiction as Christian or sacred fantasy, in which, in particular, E. Khayetskaya and the “invented” G. L. Oldi “philosophical action movie”.
• To the addressee of the work: children's fantasy, female fantasy.
• Outside of this coordinate system, detective fantasy , magical realism , game and erotic fantasy remain ^[28] .

Elena Kovtun, in turn, divides fantasy into four types: mystic-philosophical fantasy, metaphorical fantasy, "black" fantasy and heroic fantasy ^[29] .

• Mystical and philosophical fantasy. A kind of fantasy, where a fantastic assumption defines the essence and meaning of the story. The fate of the hero and his life choice completely depend on the fantastic reality created in the work. In the works of this variety, the mystical and philosophical aspect is the main meaning of being and the only goal worthy of attention and service.
• Metaphorical fantasy. A kind of fantasy, where the fantastic assumption is some kind of ideal image of the miraculous. In this kind of fantasy, the inner world of a person, his spiritual and spiritual qualities are put at the forefront. The heroes of the works are people with a complex inner world, a plot is built around their experiences and rethinking the world around them.
• Black fantasy (by which Kovtun refers to horror literature). A kind of fantasy, where otherworldly forces invade the seemingly unshakable everyday reality. These forces are inaccessible to the understanding of people and embody the most terrible properties.
• Heroic Fantasy. A kind of fantasy, where a fantastic assumption turns into a decoration, decoration of a spatio-temporal world. The basis of the works are adventurous adventures of the protagonist. Worldview issues for this kind of fantasy fade into the background.

Horror is close to dark fantasy, and often critics are at a loss with the criteria for a clear separation of the two genres ^[30] . Fantasy, as a rule, includes such a subgenre of fiction as horror (dark fantasy, horror tales, in the Kovtun textbook this term is translated as “black fantasy” ^[6] , although this term is usually used for dark fantasy , a genre contrasted with “high” fantasy ^[31] ).

Galina Zalomkina with reference to Anna Radcliffe by the nature of the supernatural divides horror into horror gothic (horror has a material embodiment) and terror gothic (horror is embodied only in a tense atmosphere) ^[32] . Susan Hayward singles out supernatural horror (works with the participation of fantastic creatures), psychological horror and slashers (works with an abundance of bloody scenes, simplicity of design, and a dynamic plot ^[33] .

The main feature of the horror and its difference from fantasy is the helplessness of man in front of supernatural forces. Occult mysticism, powerful otherworldly monsters, supernatural powers or catastrophic phenomena are not subject to the will of man. Horror is characterized by an atmosphere of fear and fatalism , often taking the form of hopelessness ^[34] .

The prominent representatives of the genre are primarily G. F. Lovecraft and Stephen King ^{[35] [36]} .

The differences between science fiction and fantasy are not fundamental, these genres developed in close interaction, they have common roots, such as a gothic novel . The interpenetration of these subgenres can take various forms ^[14] . The result is borderline works that have features of both genres. Motives of both genres can coexist in one work (“The Monday begins on Saturday ” by the Strugatsky Brothers ) or interpenetrate, “germinate” into each other, transforming into a new entity (“ Cosmic trilogy ” by C. S. Lewis ) ^[37] .

At the junction of science fiction and fantasy, it is customary to distinguish between hybrid areas such as scientific fantasy (magic has a scientific explanation) and techno-fantasy (a combination of technology and magic). In turn, such a genre as the modern cosmoopera appeared on the border of scientific fantasy and solid NF ^[38] . The main difference between space opera and science fiction is the lack of scientific justification and the fact that scientific and technical aspects play the role of entourage ^[39] .

For genre classification, it is also important to draw genre boundaries, to find out if the fantastic genre-forming element for a particular work. In the case of a positive answer to this question, one speaks of “fiction proper” (“substantive fiction”), where the fantastic assumption is a structure-forming principle and one can speak specifically about the fiction genre . Otherwise, sometimes they use the term “formal science fiction” (science fiction, as a secondary artistic convention). In this case, we are talking about other genres of literature, where a fantastic assumption is an auxiliary element in the disclosure of the author’s intention, they play an auxiliary technical role and do not significantly affect the plot and idea ^{[9] [6]} .

This distinction led to the emergence of the concept of "fantasy-goal" and "fantasy-means." For many years this concept has become the main one in Russian science fiction. However, the assignment of specific works to one or another type in practice proved to be difficult and unobvious ^[40] .

And, moreover, this distinction has given rise to two approaches to the definition of fiction ^{[25] [41]} . The first traditional approach is that fiction is considered a genre of literature and art. In the framework of the second approach, shared by a number of famous Russian science fiction writers, science fiction is considered only an artistic device or method in literature and art ^{[42] [43]} . This method consists in applying a special technique - a fantastic assumption ^[43] . According to authors such as Gromov and Ladyzhensky ( Oldie ), "fiction is literature plus a fantastic assumption" ^[44] . According to Boris Strugatsky , introducing an extraordinary element into a work makes science fiction a fantasy ^[41] .

Olga Chigirinskaya believes that the artistic feature of the fiction genre is self-worth, the autologicity of fantastic sensualization, which distinguishes it from unrealistic mainstream literature, where it is impossible to read fantastic images other than metaphorical ^[18] .

G. Gurevich in his classification of science fiction included varieties of the use of science fiction as a technique in the general “map” of science fiction genres.

Another aspect is that science fiction has transcended its genre boundaries ^[9] , crossing the boundaries of not only genres (for example, fantastic detective and humorous fiction ) and types of literature (for example, fantastic poetry and fantastic dramaturgy ), but also of types of art ( for example, fantastic music ^{[45] [46] [47]} , film fiction , fantastic painting ^{[48] [49] [50]} ). In some sources, science fiction is considered as a mega-genre in which there are all genres and all directions with an additional element of heterogeneity ^{[51] [52]} . The typology problems of the fantastic mega-genre were considered at the All-Russian Scientific Conference “Fiction and Modern Mythmaking” ^[53] .

The Czech writer Ondzhej Neff classifies science fiction in three ways: “scientific” - the degree of reliability of the hypothesis; “Sociality” - the presence and depth of socio-philosophical issues; "Fantastic" - the writer’s persuasiveness and skill in the embodiment of fantastic images ^[16] .

T. Chernysheva uses a coordinate system to classify fiction: one axis determines the type of narrative structure, the second axis defines the “texture” of fantastic images. She divides fantastic images into three groups: those associated with fairy tales and pagan beliefs, with the medieval mythology of monotheistic religions and popular superstitions, and, the third type, with a refraction in the mass consciousness of the scientific interpretation of the world ^[16] .

Andrei Ermolaev in his famous 1986 report, noting that fiction is traditionally classified according to the type of fantastic assumption (scientific, unscientific, fairy-tale), suggested distinguishing it according to the principle of ideological completeness of the work, highlighting 3 large groups: entertaining and adventure fiction, cognitive fiction and social philosophical fiction ^[54] .

Summarizing the various attempts to classify fiction, we can say that it is conducted according to the following parameters:

• by the nature of the fantastic assumption (science fiction - fantasy);
• according to the function of the fantastic assumption and the issue under consideration (“scientific” - “social”; “hard” - “soft”; “technical” - “humanitarian” and so on);
• according to the place of the fantastic element (structure-forming principle is the element of poetics) and its role (Elena Kovtun uses the terms “substantial” and “formal” fantasy). Works in which the fantasy does not play a valuable role often do not belong to the genre of science fiction itself ^[18] ;
• by subject, pathos, type of plot (philosophical, psychological, adventure, satirical fiction, etc.) ^[55] .

Elena Kovtun suggests distinguishing six types of fiction in European literature of the 19th — 20th centuries: rational fiction, fantasy, fairy-tale, mythological, satirical and philosophical conventions. Rational and science fiction actually form what is commonly called science fiction ^[56] .

The Soviet science fiction writer Georgy Gurevich in his science fiction studies tried to draw up a “map of the land of fantasy”, including both science fiction itself (in the terminology of Elena Kovtun - “meaningful”) and works adjacent to it (“formal science fiction”).

In his classification, George Gurevich divided all fiction into 10 groups ^[9] .

According to the type of fiction (“dream field”), his map is divided into pure (unreasonable) science fiction and science fiction. Psychological and adventure science fiction were highlighted. Satire is adjacent to political science fiction, and utopia to dystopia. Cognitive fiction borders on a field of new ideas, which in turn is laboratory and production fiction.

Subsequently, Gurevich developed a new version of the fantasy map and singled out the following fantasy genres on it: cognitive, adventure, dream of the goal, new ideas, dream of means (production and laboratory), future techniques, psychological, satirical, anti-utopia and utopia ^[57] .

In his classification, George Gurevich distinguishes science fiction and science fiction theme. В первом случае фантастика играет роль инструмента для выражения творческого замысла писателя, во-втором является основой сюжета и главным смыслом произведения. Причем одно и тоже фантастическое допущение может играть в разных произведениях роль приёма или темы.

Фантастика, как приём в художественном произведении делится на познавательную (популяризация науки), приключенческую, психологическую (изучения характера человека), сатирическую и политическую (отображение политических проблем через призму фантастического).

Фантастика, как тема в художественном произведении делится на фантастику чистой мечты, фантастику научных идей, лабораторную, производственную, фантастику предостережения и утопию ^[58] .

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• Мзареулов К. Глава 3. Многообразие жанра // Фантастика: общий курс.
• Ковтун Е. Н. Художественный вымысел в литературе 20 века . — Высшая школа, 2008. — 1500 экз. — ISBN 978-5-06-005661-7 .
• Жанры — рубрика журнала « Мир фантастики »
• Вячеслав Бабышев . Внешние и внутренние жанры фантастики // Уральский следопыт . — 2014. — № 11 (689) . — С. 81—84 .

• Жанры фантастики на Фантлабе .
• Классификация фантастики на сайте «Фэнта Зиландия».