Reactionary Worldbuilding
From Speculative Imagination to Political Practice
$176.90
- Paperback
420 pages
- Release Date
30 June 2026
Summary
The first in-depth study of the dark side of worldbuilding, exploring the connection between speculative imagination and political practice.
Speculative imagination brings to life an array of possible worlds that differ in crucial ways from the one governed by shared assumptions of the “normal,” “real,” or “inevitable.” This act of speculation—known as worldbuilding—has become undeniably resurgent in our times of multiple crises. Worldbuilding has long been associated with pr…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780262053679 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0262053675 |
| Author: | Anindita Banerjee, Sherryl Vint |
| Publisher: | MIT Press Ltd |
| Imprint: | MIT Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 420 |
| Release Date: | 30 June 2026 |
| Weight: | 369g |
| Dimensions: | 152mm x 229mm |
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Critics Review
“This volume is timely in more ways than one as it answers both to a widely felt crisis in public discourse and to a more localized lacuna within [science fiction] scholarship.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books
“[Reactionary Worldbuilding] demonstrates the migration of speculative fiction and worldbuilding techniques from the realm of imaginative storytelling into the dangerous arena of far-right politics… This is an important book.”
—Ancillary Review of Books
Anindita Banerjee
Anindita Banerjee is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Cornell University and a faculty fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Her recent publications include South of the Future and Border Environments.
Sherryl Vint is Distinguished Professor of Media and Cultural Studies and English at the University of California, Riverside, where she founded the Speculative Fictions and Cultures of Science program. She is the Managing Editor of Science Fiction Studies and has published widely on science fiction, including Biopolitical Futures and Programming the Future.
David M. Higgins is Associate Professor of English and American Studies and Chair of the Department of Humanities and Communication at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Worldwide. He is the author of Reverse Colonization, which won the 2021 Science Fiction Research Association Book Award.
Jordan S. Carroll is the author of Speculative Whiteness and Reading the Obscene, which won the 2020–2021 MLA Prize for Independent Scholars.
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