The Known and the Unknown: The Iconography of Science Fiction

by Gary K. Wolfe

Book by Wolfe

Genres: Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Essays

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Gary K. Wolfe is Emeritus Professor of Humanities at Roosevelt University and the author, most recently, of Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature and Sightings: Reviews 2002–2006. He writes regular review columns for Locus magazine and the Chicago Tribune, and co-hosts with Jonathan Strahan the Hugo-nominated Coode Street Podcast.

Reviews

[Simona B · Rating 5 out of 5]

I realize this book is now more than forty years old, but it remains one of my favourite academic treatments of science fiction. Wolfe's insights, his theory of SF as a genre structured around "barriers to knowledge"--this book is a milestone in SF criticism, something whose possible applications still have to be fully explored, and I'm in love with all of it.