“But Is It Science Fiction?”: Science Fiction and a Theory of Genre

If science fiction is a genre, then attempts to think about the nature of science fiction will be affected by one’s understanding of what genres are. I shall examine two approaches to genre, one (genres as regions of conceptual space) dominant but inadequate, the other (genres as historical particulars) better, but only occasionally making itself seen. I shall then discuss several important, interrelated issues, focusing particularly on science fiction: what it is for a work to belong to a genre, the semantics of genre names, the (in)validity of attempts to define genres, and the connections between genre and normativity. One important but neglected clue to the nature of genres lies in the kinds of disagreements they generate over the assignment of works to genres. I conclude by explaining why these disagreements tell us something about the nature of genres, and discussing in some detail two famous cases of disagreement about whether some work or works are science fiction. Before beginning, it is necessary to sound a note of methodological caution. I began this article with a conditional. Is its antecedent true? Is science fiction a genre? Aesthetically significant categories of artworks are abundant and highly heterogeneous. They include formal, historical, topical, political. and many other kinds of categories. But which of these are genres? “Genre” is one of those terms about which there is no agreement at all over either its analysis or definition, on the one hand, or the range of things to which it applies, on the other hand. This essay