Hannah Wells

June 27, 2013 

Speculative Fiction: A Genre of Actuality

            In 2010, two literary giants met in Portland to discuss the nuances of genre. Ursula K. LeGuin, a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy, and Margaret Atwood, who prefers the genre of speculative fiction where, both women agreed, writers have “more freedom to tackle sweeping subjects unavailable to the realist” sat side by side to examine their more “indefinable genre fiction” (Evans 1). After I read several essays and the transcript from this conversation, and because Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors, I became interested in the definition of speculative fiction, especially as it relates to science fiction and similar genres. My research led me to informative articles about genre and some very helpful pieces from Atwood herself.

            Atwood describes her background and interest in science fiction and her explanation of speculative fiction in the article “The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake in Context.” In the beginning of this article, Margaret Atwood relates the story about running into sci-fi fans who were very angry with her because she claimed to not write science fiction. This same comment led to the aforementioned public meeting with Ursula K. LeGuin. To clarify this pronouncement, Atwood defines speculative fiction very early in this article. Speculative fiction “employs the means already more or less to hand, and takes place on Planet Earth” (Atwood 513). One important point for Atwood is that speculative fiction serves as a tree from which science fiction branches. Science fiction denotes works “with things in them we can’t yet do or begin to do, talking beings we can never meet and places we can never go” (Atwood 513). Atwood goes on to describe her lifelong love of science fiction works and even B movies of the same genre. I found this article very helpful because Atwood succinctly defined speculative fiction and made it clear that, like most genres, it is blended and as difficult to nail down as “jelly to a wall” (513).

            In the article “Time to Go: The Post-Apocalyptic and the Post-Traumatic in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake,” the author takes Atwood’s definition of speculative fiction and tries to elaborate. Katherine V. Snyder, the author of the article, hypothesizes that speculative fiction is an effective genre because it is set in a believable world with realistic problems and advancements. The works, especially those that fall into dystopian speculative fiction, “depend precisely on the readers’ recognition . . . by evoking an uncanny sense of the simultaneous familiarity and strangeness of these brave new worlds” (470). Speculative fiction is powerful in this way because the reader can see how the world of today could easily become the dystopian wreck that it is in Oryx and Crake or Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Snyder calls this phenomenon “doubled temporality” (472). This article was very interesting because along with a nice addition to the definition of speculative fiction, Snyder also analyzed the role of trauma in works like Oryx and Crake and other literature of the genre.

            One of the most straightforward answers that I found as to the definition of speculative fiction came from a very likely source: The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction. Like some other pieces, the explanation in the Encyclopedia starts out rather vaguely and asserts that speculative fiction is a large term that encompasses many genres. The most interesting part of the definition found in this source is the idea that speculative fiction “provides a reflection of reality, but this critical distance allows for a reflection on reality” (Lucas 843). This idea is very similar to the one expressed by Katherine Snyder and is helping me to see one important way in which speculative fiction may differ from science fiction. At the end of the entry in the Encyclopedia, the author proposes that works of speculative fiction seem to ask, “’How would human communities change as a result of…?’” While science fiction works hold science and technology at their center, speculative fiction has the future of society at its core.

            Finally, the shortest, most casual article of the bunch gave the simplest definition of speculative fiction as it differs from other genres. If I were defining speculative fiction for students or peers I would most likely lay it out this way: “the breakdown is as follows: could happen (speculative fiction), couldn't happen yet (science fiction), could never happen at all (fantasy)” (Evans 1). This simple explanation wraps up several days’ worth of serious reading on the topic of speculative fiction. I plan to pursue this subject in the future and hope to continue defining the genre.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake "In Context." PMLA , Vol. 119, No. 3, Special Topic: Science Fiction and Literary Studies: The Next Millennium (May, 2004), pp. 513-517. Online.  

Evans, Claire L. “Margaret Atwood and Ursula K. Le Guin debate science fiction vs. "realism." i09. http://io9.com/5650396/margaret-atwood-and-ursula-k-le-guin-debate 27 June 2013

Lucas, Gerald R. “Speculative Fiction.” The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Online.

Snyder, Katherine V. "TIME TO GO": THE POST-APOCALYPTIC AND THE POST-TRAUMATIC IN MARGARET ATWOOD'S "ORYX AND CRAKE." Studies in the Novel , Vol. 43, No. 4 (winter 2011), pp. 470-489. Online.