Critical Insights: Robert A. Heinlein explores the work of perhaps the most famous and influential name in modern science fiction.
Considered the
Dean of Science Fiction,
Robert A. Heinlein helped define the genre of science fiction-and more specifically, speculative fiction-as a serious form of social, political, and cultural commentary during the mid-20th century. Titles discussed in this volume include Heinlein’s novels The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Podkayne of Mars, as well as a variety of his short stories and early pulp magazine appearances.
Heinlein is best known for the evolution of science fiction from the mid-twentieth century onward. He may not have been the first to envision, say, the generation starship, the closed time-loop, or the powered military exoskeleton, but his early treatments have become the classic standards. In addition, his fiction explores not only hard science but also, at times, magic, spirituality, sociological systems, and methods of government.
This title is divided into four main sections, starting with Career, Life, and Influence. This section discusses Heinlein’s career and certain themes of his writings in fairly broad terms, along with a biography about the man behind the literature. The rest of the text examines the writings of Robert A. Heinlein and their growing legacy.
The Critical Contexts and Critical Readings sections provide authoritative and in-depth essays by some of academia’s most distinguished literary scholars.
Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of
Works Cited,
along with endnotes. Finally, the volume’s appendixes offer a section of useful reference resources: A chronology of the author’s life; A complete list of the author’s works and their original dates of publication; A general bibliography; A detailed paragraph on the volume’s editor; Notes on the individual chapter authors; A subject index.
