Science Fiction of the 1870s

deadline for submissions: 
October 7, 2024
full name / name of organization: 
Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction

To mark the 150th issue of Foundation in spring 2025, we would like to include contributions on the topic of sf from 150 years ago, published during the 1870s. Darko Suvin once proposed 1 May 1871 as the starting-point for sf – the day that Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race was published, George Chesney’s The Battle of Dorking began serialisation, and Samuel Butler submitted Erewhon to his publisher. Jules Verne, however, was already in full swing and he would soon be joined by such contemporaries as Camille Flammarion. Where else can we trace the roots of science fiction in the 1870s? How can we reassess the writers we know and who are the writers we need to rediscover?

We welcome articles on any aspect of science fiction published between 1870 and 1880. Articles should be 5000-8000 words long and written in accordance with the style guide available on the website (www.sf-foundation.org/journal). Topics may include but are not limited to the following:

  • Ideas of utopia
  • Humans and machine technology
  • The impact of evolution and the biological sciences
  • Sf and the invasion novel
  • Sf and astronomy
  • Satire and allegory
  • Science and pseudo-science
  • Space travel and other worlds
  • Exploration and voyages of discovery
  • Race and empire
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Arnold, Huxley and the ‘two cultures’ debate
  • Sf and the non-anglophone world

The deadline for articles is 7 October 2024. Please email your submission to Dr Paul March-Russell at paulmarchrussell@gmail.com with a short (50-word) bionote