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Dissertation Information for Frederick Andrew Lerner

NAME:
- Frederick Andrew Lerner

DEGREE:
- D.L.S.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Columbia University (USA) (1981)

ADVISORS:
- Susan Otis Thompson
- Maurice Tauber

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Jane Anne Therese Hannigan

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: MODERN SCIENCE FICTION AND ITS RECEPTION BY THE AMERICAN LITERARY AND EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITIES, 1926-1970

Abstract: Modern American science fiction originated in the specialized all-fiction "pulp magazines," and evolved subject to the economic and social constraints governing the pulp-magazine industry. The first science fiction magazine appeared in 1926; since that date a close-knit community of writers, editors, and readers has dominated the field. Both of these factors tended to isolate the genre from the mainstream of twentieth-century American literature. But in addition to its relatively small hard-core readership, others have from time to time invested science fiction. The American literary community--book reviewers, journalists, scholars, teachers, librarians, and others whose profession or avocation it was to be concerned with literatures--interpreted science fiction to their several constituencies.

The American public's interest in the genre, which has increased steadily during the period since 1926, has reflected major technological advances and long-term social and technological changes. Since the end of World War II, modern American science fiction has become an increasingly significant part of the commercial publishing field, and has inspired an increasing amount of activity on the part of the American literary community. Book reviews in general newspapers and magazines were largely limited to superficial comments intended for the guidance of regular readers of science fiction, or for teachers or librarians concerned more with the moral and ideological content of the literature than with its merits as fiction. Popular magazines paid little attention to the field before World War II. After the war, both SF stories and articles about the genre appeared in several widely-read periodicals. Substantial attention was paid to the scientific and ideological content of science fiction stories, while in articles about the field psychologists, sociologists, theologians, and philosophers discusses science fiction's visions as they applied to their several specialties. Readers of literary magazines and essays during the years before 1950 encountered very little mention of science fiction, but during the 1950s and 1960s both its aesthetic achievements and social significance were frequently discussed. Its peculiar forms and conventions came to be acknowledged by critics, who by the end of the 1960s judged, SF primarily as a literature of ideas and paid only token attention to its aesthetics.

Since its emergence as an identifiable literary field, modern American science fiction has inspired a considerable amount of amateur scholarship. Toward the end of the 1950s, professionally-trained students of American literature began to concern themselves with the genre. This continued on an increasing scale during the 1960s, encouraged by the expansion of the American academic community during that decade. College courses in science fiction multiplied, and high schools included SF in their curricula. The professional literature of education took no notice of science fiction before 1948, but its treatment of the genre since then has been almost uniformly favorable. Similarly, library literature has maintained a generally positive attitude toward SF, and the genre has been recognized in book selection media, classification schemes, and subject headings. Science fiction collections have been established in several major research libraries. futurologists, whose work shared with that of SF writers a dubious reception in some quarters, were cautious in their acceptance of science fiction. But many recognized SF as a useful speculative technique, and used science fiction stories as case studies; and science fiction writers often served as consulting futurologists.

Contrary to widespread opinion within the science fiction community, modern American science fiction's reception within the literary and educational mainstream was largely favorable. Even those writers who found much to criticize in science fiction tended to see in the genre a potential for good storytelling, communication of scientific concepts, or presentation of social or moral ideas. Interest in the genre was substantially influenced by social and technological events, such as the atomic bomb, the McCarthy period, and the progress of space exploration. During the 1970s, the role of the science fiction in American publishing grew substantially and the study and teaching of science fiction continued to expand. Science fiction has continued to receive favorable treatment at the hands of the American literary community, and may well be on the way to assimilation into the mainstream of American literature.

MPACT Scores for Frederick Andrew Lerner

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A+C = 0
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TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:01:55

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Students under Frederick Andrew Lerner

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None