- Home
- literary criticism
- fiction
- The American Shore
A keystone text in literary theory and science fiction
The American Shore: Meditations on a Tale of Science Fiction by Thomas M. Disch—"Angouleme" was first published in 1978 to the intense interest of science fiction readers and the growing community of SF scholars. Recalling Nabokov's commentary on Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, Roland Barthes' commentary on Balzac's Sarazine, and Grabinier's reading of The Heart of Hamlet, this book-length essay helped prove the genre worthy of serious investigation. The American Shore is the third in a series of influential critical works by Samuel R. Delany, beginning with The Jewel-Hinged Jaw and Starboard Wine, first published in the late seventies and reissued over the last five years by Wesleyan University Press, which helped win Delany a Pilgrim Award for Science Fiction Scholarship from the Science Fiction Research Association of America. This edition includes the author's corrected text as well as a new introduction by Delany scholar Matthew Cheney.
The American Shore, An Author's Introduction
A Road along the Shore: An Introduction to The American Shore, by Matthew Cheney
The Pretext
The Refused Text
The Context
The Diffused Text
EXOTEXTS:
Auctorial Interfaces
The Textual Object
A Privileged Chronicity
Problematic Texts
Originary Assumptions
Index
SAMUEL R. DELANY is an acclaimed novelist and critic who teaches English and creative writing at Temple University and lives in New York City. He is the author of works of criticism, fiction, and science fiction, most recently his SF novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. In 2013 he was named the 31st Damon Knight Memorial Foundation Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. MATTHEW CHENEY is a columnist for Strange Horizons and writes regularly for his weblog, The Mumpsimus.
"The American Shore is an important offering in the history of science fiction criticism, rich with Delany's poetic skills and insight as a tremendous, formidable reader. It is a one of a kind book, really, and very clearly attempts a genre of its own."
~Louis Chude-Sokei, University of Washington