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"How do the science fiction and fantasy genres differ between UK and US authors?"
This research investigates the often overlapping yet differing genres of science fiction and fantasy novels, as well as how language is comparatively used by UK and US authors in these novels (Fraser, 2025). In particular, this research focused on the stylistic differences between authors from the UK and the US and how variations emerge within the genres of fantasy and science fiction. Using novels from these genres available on Project Gutenberg, novels from these categories will be analysed using R Studio's Stylo for a stylometric analysis to establish links between texts and visualise the affinity between the fantasy and science fiction (sci-fi) authors being studied between the UK and the US (Mäkinen, 2020). Gephi will also be used for a network analysis of the authors in this dataset.
A cross examination of the differences between fantasy and fiction novels, as well as between UK and US authors has been made due to suggestions from wider literature which although examines the differences between the two genres, does not compare this with cultural differences between authors. Furthermore, literature suggests that although there is an overlap in these genres, differences in definitions of science fiction and fantasy between the UK and the US, reveals the necessity to examine the styles of these genres and their authors' contexts (Goossens, Jacquot & Dyka, 2019; Feng & Liu, 2023). This shows that this research addresses a research gap in understanding stylistic differences between genres and UK and US literature.
From a review of wider academic literature, studies corroborate that although there exists and unmistakable distinction between the genre science fiction and fantasy, definitions between the two suggest a “fuzzi-ness” between the two categories due to general confusion between their characteristics (Menadue, Giselsson & Guez, 2020). In French literary tradition, both science fiction and fantasy are grouped as one wider literary genre known as the “littérature de l'imaginaire” (speculative fiction), and highlights the overlapping aspects of these genres, showing that the two can often be difficult to tell apart (Goossens, Jacquot & Dyka, 2020). This has caused many literary scholars to debate over the stylistic differences between these two genres, as well as how they overlap, and additionally the role of culture within how they are distinguished.
Furthermore, wider literature discusses not only how defining both science fiction and fantasy are deeply rooted in the cultural context of a nation, but also the role of the historical components of the literature being observed (Feng & Liu, 2023). Science fiction in particular often offers a particular reflection on anxieties produced by its own historical and cultural context, making this reflective aspect on culture a defining aspect of the genre itself. In addition to this, scholars argue that there are features of fantasy and science fiction genres however, which are ultimately specific and different in nature to one another (Menadue, Giselsson & Guez, 2020). Specifically, science fiction can be defined as the literature of the possible, relying on scientific developments to guide imaginary fiction which though improbable is grounded in scientific realms of possibility. Fantasy, on the other hand, is guided by speculative subjectivity, and though similar in its imaginative quality, does not follow narratives of the possible yet improbable, but explores realms of impossibility itself (Boucher, 2024).
As aforementioned in the introduction, differences in the timeline of the naissance of science fiction and thus its definitions have also varied significantly between British and American literary circles. British writer Brian Aldiss, traces back science fiction to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, emphasizing science fiction's strong relationship to gothic literature and the scientific breakthroughs of the early nineteenth century. Yet, American notions of science fiction tend to lean towards bold literary breakthroughs from pulp magazines from the early twentieth century, with stories emerging from magazine traditions, rather than gothic literature. Subsequently, this creates a further divide in the target audience of science fiction literature between the UK and the US, revealing a significant divide between science fiction formats and readership within these two cultural contexts (Feng & Liu, 2023). In British fantasy writing, wider literature has also shown that unlike American authors, British authors tend to share a specific linguistic style characterised by expressive, emotive and evaluative language, suggesting a shared stylistic similarity between UK authors in fantasy genres in particular (Glinka et al, 2021). Hence, this creates further cultural nuance between what is classified as science fiction or fantasy and where, and also how authors are influenced stylistically by such history and cultural differences in the classification of these genres. As such, culture is the accumulation of national history and evolves gradually over time, resulting in literary traditions which develop in direct contact with their reality, which are subject to changes in how they are defined depending on their context (Ceia, 2016; Shiyu & Xiao, 2020).
Boucher, G. M. (2024). The specificity of fantasy and the “Affective novum”: a theory of a core subset of fantasy literature. Literature, 4(2), 101-121. https://doi.org/10.3390/literature4020008
Ceia, C. (2016). Genre categorization in contemporary British and US-American novels. CLCWeb Comparative Literature and Culture, 18(3). https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.2895
Feng, X., & Liu, B. (2023). A historical study of the British and American definitions of science fiction and related controversies. Cultures of Science, 6(4), 353-362. https://doi.org/10.1177/20966083231216125
Fraser, N. K. (2025). Style in science fiction and fantasy: studies in stylometry (Version 1). Open Research Newcastle. https://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1385736
Goossens, V., Jacquot, C., & Dyka, S. (2019). Science Fiction versus Fantasy: A Semantic Categorization and its Contribution to Distinguishing Two Literary Genres. In Phraseology and Style in Subgenres of the Novel (pp. 189-221). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23744-8_7
Glinka, Natalia and Zaichenko, Yuliia and Machulianska, Anastasiia. (2021). Stylistic Portrait of English Fantasy Texts (Based on Jordan's The Eye of the World, Martin's A Game of Thrones, Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 12. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3952947
Martti Mäkinen. (2020). Stylo visualisations of Middle English documents. https://doi.org/10.46298/jdmdh.5614
Menadue, C. B., Giselsson, K., & Guez, D. (2020). An Empirical Revision of the Definition of Science Fiction: It Is All in the Techne . . . Sage Open, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020963057