Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction

Science fiction and socialism have always had a close relationship. Many sf novelists and filmmakers are leftists. Others examine explicit or implicit Marxist concerns. As a genre, sf is ideally suited to critiquing the present through its explorations of the social and political possibilities of the future. This is the first collection to combine analyses of sf literature and films within a broader overview of Marxist theory and critical perspectives on the genre. Covering a rich variety of examples from Weimar cinema to mainstream Hollywood films, and novelists from Jules Verne and H.G. Wells to Kim Stanley Robinson, Ken MacLeod and Charles Stross, this is an indespensible insight into how Marxism and science fiction go hand-in-hand.

Baruch Hirson was a prominent Trotskyist activist in South Africa for many years before his imprisonment in 1964. On his release in 1973 he emigrated to Britain, where he taught at Bradford and Middlesex Universities. He published widely on South African revolutionary politics. Baruch Hirson died in 1999._x000B_Arthur J. Knodel was a distinguished scholar at the University of Southern California, best known for his translations and criticism of Nobel Prize-winning poet Saint-John Perse. Knodel died in 2001._x000B_Gregor Benton is Professor of Chinese History at Cardiff University.