Distributed for University of Wales Press
Mapping the Megatext in Global Science Fiction
A voyage into the ever-expanding global space of science fiction ideas and works.
Science-fictional (SF) narratives help humanity to make sense of its reality and place in the universe. The twin phenomena of globalization and the emergence of new science fictions and futurisms from outside the Anglophone world, and in minority languages or Indigenous societies, presents a challenging yet exciting new frontier for criticism in the field. Critics can explore the relationship between such SF narratives and the different cultural realities they mediate, as well as their relationship to that storehouse of trope, plots, themes, and images known as the SF megatext. The introduction and nine essays contained in Mapping the Megatext in Global Science Fiction take up that challenge, addressing texts by important authors from Bangladesh, the Afro-Caribbean, Syria, Hungary, Israel, Wales, Norway, Sweden, and the native Noongar peoples of Australia.
272 pages | 5.43 x 8.5 | © 2026
New Dimensions in Science Fiction
Literature and Literary Criticism: General Criticism and Critical Theory
Table of Contents
Editors and Contributors
Introduction
Dale Knickerbocker and Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay
‘A house of my own’: Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber (2000), postcoloniality, and narrative revision
W. Andrew Shephard
Claire G. Coleman’s Terra Nullius and Australian Indigenous Futurism
Iva Polak
The ‘pessoptimism’ of Arabic science fiction: a guide on travelogues in the works of Syrian
?alib ‘Umran
Ada Barbaro
Territorial histories: Lavie Tidhar, transcultural spaces, and Israeli fantastika
Elana Gomel
‘You are not alone’?:? Raana Raas (Etelka Suhajda) and the speculative future of religion in
Hungarian SF and beyond Bogi Takács
A strong survival instinct: Manon Steffan Ros’ Llyfr Glas Nebo (Blue Book of Nebo)
Miriam Elin Jones
Science fiction from Bangladesh: nonhuman laborers and human ethics in Muhammad
Jafar Iqbal’s SF novels
Anwesha Maity
Speculating the welfare state: Cathrine Knudsen and Nordic science fiction
Ingvil Hellstrand
“The only thing that can save us from reality is fiction”: Lars Jakobson and his Friendly Friends
Jerry Määttä