Fifty Key Figures in Cyberpunk Culture by McFarlane, Anna; Murphy, Graham J.; Schmeink, Lars;

Short description:

A collection of engaging essays on some of the most significant figures in cyberpunk culture, this outstanding guide charts the rich and varied landscape of cyberpunk from the 1970s to present day.

Long description:

A collection of engaging essays on some of the most significant figures in cyberpunk culture, this outstanding guide charts the rich and varied landscape of cyberpunk from the 1970s to present day.

The collection features key figures from a variety of disciplines, from novelists, critical and cultural theorists, philosophers, and scholars, to filmmakers, comic book artists, game creators, and television writers. Important and influential names discussed include: J. G. Ballard, Jean Baudrillard, Rosi Braidotti, Charlie Brooker, Pat Cadigan, William Gibson, Donna J. Haraway, Nalo Hopkinson, Janelle Monáe, Annalee Newitz, Katsuhiro Ōtomo, Sadie Plant, Mike Pondsmith, Ridley Scott, Bruce Sterling, and the Wachowskis. The editors also include an afterword of ‘Honorable Mentions’ to highlight additional figures and groups of note that have played a role in shaping cyberpunk.

This accessible guide will be of interest to students and scholars of cultural studies, film studies, literature, media studies, as well as anyone with an interest in cyberpunk culture and science fiction.

"Fifty Key Figures in Cyberpunk Culture is an excellent introduction to some of the writers, artists, theorists, and scientists whose influence has helped to shape today’s technocultural imaginary. Readers will (re)discover cyberpunk culture’s makers, from J.G. Ballard to Rosi Braidotti, from Marshall McLuhan to Richard K. Morgan, from Rudy Rucker to Joanna Russ, from Vernor Vinge to Norbert Wiener. Fifty Key Figures is both an exciting supplement to MacFarlane, Murphy, and Schmeink’s recently published Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture and an important contribution to cyberculture studies in general."

Veronica Hollinger, Editor of Science Fiction Studies and Professor Emerita of Cultural Studies at Trent University, Canada

"Fifty Key Figures in Cyberpunk Culture brings together a truly diverse and global array of entries that explodes the limits of cyberpunk’s perceived "monocromatism," and heteronormative, masculine biases. The entries gathered here reveal cyberpunk to be a key cultural formation for investigating the racial, class, gender, and sexual intersections of our increasingly techno-saturated late capitalist present. Your favorite "deep-cut" author might be missing, but you’ll discover far more than you’ll miss."

Hugh Charles O’Connell, Assistant Professor of English, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA

"From classic Movement sf writers like William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Pat Cadigan to key precursors like Samuel R. Delany, Joanna Russ, James Tiptree, Jr., and Philip K. Dick and contemporary practitioners like Charlie Brooker, Lana and Lilly Wachowski, Lauren Beukes, and Janelle Monáe -- with a truly global collection of writers, filmmakers, scientists, and philosophers spanning every field of art and innovation over more than a century -- McFarlane, Murphy, and Schmeink's Fifty Figures lays any possible doubt to rest: cyberpunk still rules our world."

Gerry Canavan, President of the Science Fiction Research Association and Associate Professor of English, Marquette University, USA

Table of Contents:

Introduction  1. J. G. Ballard  2. Steven Barnes  3. Jean Baudrillard  4. Lauren Beukes  5. Rosi Braidotti  6. Charlton ‘Charlie’ Brooker  7. Pat Cadigan  8. David Cronenberg  09. Samuel R. Delany  10. Philip K. Dick  11. Cory Doctorow  12. Warren Ellis  13. William Gibson  14. Donna J. Haraway  15. N. Katherine Hayles  16. Nalo Hopkinson  17. Sogo Ishii  18. Ray Kurzweil  19. Jaron Lanier  20. Marshall McLuhan  21. Syd Mead  22. Misha  23. Moebius   24. Janelle Monáe  25. Richard K. Morgan  26. Annalee Newitz  27. Mamoru Oshii  28. Katsuhiro Ōtomo  29. Marge Piercy  30. Sadie Plant  31. Mike Pondsmith  32. Thomas Pynchon  33. Rudy Rucker  34. Joanna Russ  35. Melissa Scott  36. Ridley Scott  37. Lewis Shiner  38. Masumune Shirow  39. Warren Spector  40. Stelarc  41. Neal Stephenson  42. Bruce Sterling  43. Allucquére Rosanne ‘Sandy’ Stone  44. James Tiptree, Jr.  45. Alvin and Wendy Toffler  46. Shinya Tsukamoto  47. Vernor Vinge  48. Lana and Lilly Wachwoski  49. Norbert Wiener  50. Shoshana Zuboff  Honourable Mentions