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Filter this Collection| x name | x image | x Works Written About This Topic | x Musical compositions about this topic | x article |
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| x Science Fiction |
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Science-Fiction Handbook |
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible (or at least non-supernatural) content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities. Exploring the...
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| The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction | ||||
| Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction | ||||
| The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection | ||||
| The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World | ||||
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| x Cyberspace | Snow Crash |
Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.
The term "cyberspace" was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for...
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| What just happened: a chronicle from the information frontier | ||||
| Idoru | ||||
| Virtual Light | ||||
| Dave Barry in Cyberspace | ||||
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| x Computer Science |
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Snow Crash |
Computer science or computing science (abbreviated CS or CompSci) designates the scientific and mathematical approach in computer software and sometimes hardware. A computer scientist is a scientist who specialises in the theory of computation and...
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| The Diamond Age | ||||
| The Art of Computer Programming | ||||
| Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing | ||||
| Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code | ||||
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| x Nanotechnology |
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Snow Crash |
Nanotechnology (sometimes shortened to "nanotech") is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized...
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| The Diamond Age | ||||
| Prey | ||||
| One Jump Ahead | ||||
| The Nano Flower | ||||
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| x University life | The Big U | |||
| x Satire |
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The Big U |
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals,...
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| The Intelligence Agents | ||||
| The Business | ||||
| God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater | ||||
| Point Counter Point | ||||
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| x Time travel |
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In The Garden of Iden |
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or...
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| Mendoza in Hollywood | ||||
| The End of Eternity | ||||
| Thrice Upon a Time | ||||
| The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate | ||||
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| x Hollywood | Mendoza in Hollywood |
Hollywood (also known as Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film) is a 1980 documentary series produced by Thames Television which explored the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and its impact on 1920s culture.
The...
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| The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession | ||||
| Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince | ||||
| Adaptation | ||||
| Adored | ||||
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| x Scripture | 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated | |||
| x The Bible | 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated |
The Bible are an English rock band. The band released two critically acclaimed albums in the mid 1980s and are best known for the independent chart hits "Graceland" and "Mahalia". Lead singer Boo Hewerdine has also maintained a solo career since the...
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| The Pocket Canons Bible | ||||
| The Pocket Canons Bible | ||||
| Birds Of The Bible | ||||
| Re-Introducing God | ||||
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| x Detective fiction |
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The Doorbell Rang |
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator (often a detective), either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.
Some scholars have suggested that some ancient and religious...
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| The Secret Adversary | ||||
| Bloody murder | ||||
| The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective | ||||
| A James Sallis Reader | ||||
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| x Conspiracy fiction |
The conspiracy thriller (or paranoid thriller) is a subgenre of thriller fiction. The protagonists of conspiracy thrillers are often journalists or amateur investigators who find themselves (often inadvertently) pulling on a small thread which...
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| x Novel |
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A Tale of Two Cities |
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th...
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| To Live Again | ||||
| The Translator | ||||
| Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts | ||||
| The Zahir | ||||
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| x Crime Fiction |
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Mystic River |
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalises crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be,...
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| The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction: The Authors, Their Works and Their Most Famous Creations | ||||
| Morality Play | ||||
| A Catalogue of Crime: A Reader's Guide to the Literature of Mystery, Detection, and Related Genres | ||||
| The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery | ||||
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| x Thriller | Witch and Wizard |
Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened...
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| x Fantasy |
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The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy through 1968, Volume 3: Miscellaneous |
Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1960s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic...
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| The Encyclopedia of Fantasy | ||||
| Ellipse of uncertainty | ||||
| The Dictionary of Imaginary Places | ||||
| Reflections on the Fantastic | ||||
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| x Short story | Pastoralia |
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas (in the 20th and 21st century sense) and novels. Short story...
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| The Metatemporal Detective | ||||
| A Tranquil Star | ||||
| Zima Blue and Other Stories | ||||
| Platinum Pohl | ||||
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| x Comic novel | Puckoon |
A comic novel is a work of fiction in which the writer not only seeks to amuse the reader, but also to make the reader think about controversial issues, sometimes with subtlety and as part of a carefully woven narrative; sometimes, above all other...
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| The Looney: An Irish Fantasy | ||||
| x Utopian and dystopian fiction | Utopian Thought in the Western World |
The utopia and its offshoot, the dystopia, are genres of literature that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world, or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation...
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| x Romance novel |
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Reading the Romance |
The romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally...
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| Affairs of the Heart | ||||
| Angel at the Fence | ||||
| Night Undone | ||||
| Without A Testimony | ||||
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| x Spy fiction |
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Ke Keno Kibhabe |
Spy fiction, literature concerning the forms of espionage, was a sub-genre derived from the novel during the nineteenth century, which then evolved into a discrete genre before the First World War (1914–18), when governments established modern...
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| x Adventure novel | Frankenswine |
The adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main storyline.
Critic Don D'Ammassa, in the Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction defines the genre by...
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| La Lama Nera | ||||
| x Picaresque novel |
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The picaresque novel (Spanish: "picaresca," from "pícaro," for "rogue" or "rascal") is a popular sub-genre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts, in realistic and often humorous detail, the adventures of a roguish hero of low...
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| x Speculative fiction |
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The Arbitrary Placement of Walls |
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction...
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| IMMUNE | ||||
| Christmas When Music Almost Killed the World | ||||
| x Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction | There Will Come Soft Rains |
Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt,...
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| There Will Come Soft Rains | ||||
| I Am Legend | ||||
| The Passage | ||||
| The Year of the Flood | ||||
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| x Chick lit | Fourth Comings |
Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. The genre sold well during the 1990s and 2000s, with chick lit titles topping bestseller lists and the creation of imprints devoted entirely...
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| The Guy Not Taken | ||||
| x Romantic fiction |
Romantic fiction may refer to:
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| x Autobiographical novel |
An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fiction elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. Because...
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| x Philosophical novel |
Philosophical fiction refers to works of fiction in which a significant proportion of the work is devoted to a discussion of the sort of questions normally addressed in discursive philosophy. These might include the function and role of society, the...
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| x High fantasy |
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High fantasy or epic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is set in invented or parallel worlds. High fantasy was brought to fruition through the work of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, whose major fantasy works were published in...
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| x Cyberpunk |
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Storming the Reality Studio |
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983. It features advanced science, such as...
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| x Space opera | The Gods of Mars |
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has...
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| Sandworms of Dune | ||||
| Between Planets | ||||
| Sixth Column | ||||
| The Puppet Masters | ||||
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| x Action genre |
The word action has more than one meaning in fiction. Action is one of the fiction-writing modes authors use to present fiction. The term is also used to describe an exiting event or circumstance.
"Action is the mode fiction writers use to show what...
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| x Western |
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Appaloosa |
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name....
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| It Feels Like Thunder | ||||
| x Dark fantasy |
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Dark fantasy is a term used to describe a fantasy story with a pronounced horror element.
A strict definition for dark fantasy is difficult to pin down. Gertrude Barrows Bennett has been called "the woman who invented dark fantasy". Both Charles L....
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| x Southern Gothic | Notes on the State of Southern Poetry: Crossings (Part 1) |
Southern Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction unique to American literature that takes place exclusively in the American South. Common themes in Southern Gothic literature include deeply flawed characters, decayed or derelict settings, and other...
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| x Erotic literature |
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La Vie Sexuelle De Catherine M. |
Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of human sexual relationships which have the power to or are intended to arouse the reader sexually. Such erotica takes the form of novels, short stories, poetry, true-life...
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| Diary of an emotional idiot | ||||
| Sex collectors | ||||
| Best American Erotica 1994 | ||||
| x Contemporary fantasy |
Contemporary fantasy, also known as modern fantasy or indigenous fantasy, is a sub-genre of fantasy, set in the present day. It is perhaps most popular for its sub-genre, urban fantasy.
These terms are used to describe stories set in the putative...
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| x Steampunk |
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Steampunk is a genre which came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s and incorporates elements of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, horror, and speculative fiction. It involves a setting where steam power is widely used...
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| x Dystopia |
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Oryx and Crake |
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian. Examples of dystopias are characterized in books such as Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Other examples include The Iron Heel...
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| x Tragicomedy | Late Shakespeare |
Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can variously describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or,...
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| x Chivalric romance |
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight |
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled...
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| Go With Me | ||||
| Motown and Didi | ||||
| x Hysterical realism |
Hysterical realism, also called recherché postmodernism, is a term coined in 2000 by the English critic James Wood in an essay on Zadie Smith's White Teeth to describe what he sees as a literary genre typified by a strong contrast between...
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| x Black comedy |
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A black comedy is a comedic work either in literature, plays, or films that incorporates idiom, terminology, and colloquial references written and portrayed predominately by African Americans. black humor, p.144 The definition of black humor is...
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| x Legal thriller |
The legal thriller is a sub-genre of thriller and crime fiction in which the major characters are lawyers and their employees. The system of justice itself is always a major part of these works, at times almost functioning as one of the characters....
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| x Psychological suspense novel |
The psychological suspense novel describes a murder or a series of murders and their backstory. Prominent authors of the genre include Ruth Rendell, Minette Walters and Nicci French.
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| x Political satire |
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Our Gang |
Political satire is a significant part of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political...
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| Me: by Jimmy (Big Boy) Valente - A Political Satire | ||||
| x Science fantasy |
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Christmas When Music Almost Killed the World |
Science fantasy is a mixed genre within speculative fiction drawing elements from both science fiction and fantasy.
A definition offered by Rod Serling holds that "science fiction, the improbable made possible; fantasy, the impossible made probable"...
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| x Political fiction |
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Capable of Honor |
Political fiction is a subgenre of fiction that deals with political affairs. Political fiction has often used narrative to provide commentary on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction often "directly criticize an...
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| Ramona | ||||
| Interface | ||||
| Nostromo | ||||
| Imagining Argentina | ||||
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| x Ghost story |
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Expiration Date |
A ghost story may be any piece of fiction, or drama, or an account of an experience, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them. Colloquially, the term can refer to any kind of scary...
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| x African American literature |
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Plum Bun |
African-American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano, reaching early high points with...
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| The Chaneysville Incident | ||||
| Spunk | ||||
| Caroling Dusk | ||||
| Hokum | ||||
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| x Soft science fiction |
Soft science fiction, or soft SF, like its complementary opposite hard science fiction, is a descriptive term that points to the role and nature of the science content in a science fiction story. The term first appeared in the late 1970s and early...
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| x Campus novel |
A campus novel, also known as an academic novel, is a novel whose main action is set in and around the campus of a university. The genre in its current form dates back to the early 1950s. The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy, published in 1952, is...
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| x Postcyberpunk |
Postcyberpunk describes a subgenre of science fiction which some critics suggest has evolved from cyberpunk. Like its predecessor, postcyberpunk focuses on technological developments in near-future societies, typically examining the social effects...
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| x Gonzo journalism |
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Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative. The word "gonzo" is believed to be first used in 1970 to describe an article by...
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| x Bizarro fiction |
Bizarro fiction is a contemporary literary genre, which often utilizes elements of absurdism, satire, and the grotesque, along with pop-surrealism and genre fiction staples, in order to create subversive works that are as weird and entertaining as...
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| x Secret history |
A secret history (or shadow history) is a revisionist interpretation of either fictional or real (or known) history which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed, forgotten, or ignored by established scholars.
Originally, secret histories...
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| x School story | Diary of a Wimpy Kid |
The school story is a fiction genre centering on older pre-adolescent and adolescent school life, at its most popular in the first half of the twentieth century. While examples do exist in other countries, it is most commonly set in English boarding...
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| Harriet the Spy | ||||
| Sideways Stories From Wayside School | ||||
| And Both Were Young | ||||
| The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor | ||||
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| x Absurdist fiction |
Absurdist fiction is a genre of literature, most often employed in novels, plays or poems, that focuses on the experiences of characters in a situation where they cannot find any inherent purpose in life, most often represented by ultimately...
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| x Family saga | The Talisman |
The family saga is a genre of literature which chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time. In novels (or sometimes sequences of novels) with a serious intent, this is often a...
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| On Beauty | ||||
| Human Croquet | ||||
| Castle Rackrent | ||||
| City of Dreams | ||||
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