“All we know is here we are”
Gothic Aspects of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles
Keywords:
Science fiction, Gothic, Ray Bradbury, MarsAbstract
The article discusses implications of the way Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950) blends elements of the gothic with more traditional Golden Age science-fiction traditions. I argue that Bradbury’s use of the gothic highlights the fundamental conflicts between approaches to the genre that are, on the one hand, more formulaic, optimistic, extrapolatory, or fantasy-oriented SF, and, on the other, those that which addresses fundamental questions of the human experience. I conclude that his work’s ability to meaningfully juxtapose elements of SF and the gothic allowed it to transcend simplistic genre conventions and become a meaningful addition to the body of important American literature.
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