Full record for New Wave n.
| Definition | a loose movement in science fiction writing from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, characterized by an experimental approach to narrative structures and language and an emphasis on nuanced social, moral, or psychological conflict rather than on technological concerns |
| OED requirements | antedating 1968 |
| Earliest cite | Brian Aldiss in 'England Swings SF' |
| Comment | John Clute, in the "Encyclopedia of Science Ficton" suggests that the term was probably first applied to New Worlds-type fiction by Christopher Priest. We would like to obtain cites from him, or any more specific information about where or when he might have used the term.
Sue Surova submitted a 1968 cite from Judith Merril's "England Swings SF" anthology. Added to OED3 in Sept 2003 with an earliest direct cite of 1968, and a bracketed cite from the Nov. 1961 Analog. |
| Last modified | 6 July, 2008 |
Citations for New Wave n.
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| 1990 P. Anderson in Thrust Winter 16/1 | To the best of my knowledge, it was first said by Robert Heinlein, whose contributions to science fiction were rather more significant than those of the New Wave. |
| 1990 C. Sheffield in Thrust Winter 18/3 | The New Wave in science fiction can be characterized in many different ways. Some said it was an attempt to bring the writing of science fiction into the 20th Century by introducing techniques that had been common in literary circles for fifty to sixty years. Others said that it was a unique fusion of two realms of creative ideas, the scientific and the literary. Others said that it was a bad thing, and that SF should get out of the salon and back in the gutter, where it belonged. ‘There's too much literature, trying to pass itself off as science fiction.’ |
| 1991 R. Rogow FutureSpeak 227 | New Wave , (literary): SF movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s that emphasized soft science over hard science, and used writing styles that varied widely from the direct narrative of earlier SF. The term, borrowed from French films of the same era, was first used by Judith Merril, and applied to mostly British SF stories published around 1964–1965. Traditionally, SF had concerned itself with problem-solving. Hardware stories would deal with a dangerous situation on board a starship; space opera would depict a heroic battle with alien forces. New Wave writers were more interested in the inner battles than the external ones; their stories would often deal with a psychological conflict that could only be resolved by a total restructuring of Society. There are few certainties in New Wave SF, and aliens are regarded in a more reasonable (if not affectionate) light. Battles are not ‘us against them’; in the spirit of post-Vietnam America, ‘Us’ is as likely to be the enemy as ‘Them’. Writers associated with the New Wave were Thomas M. Disch, Philip K. Dick, and Barry Malzberg. |
| 1994 Asimov's Sci. Fic. July 4/2 | The ambitious work of the writers who were considered to be part of the New Wave was swiftly going out of print, and what was coming in was the first surge of Star Trek novelizations, Tolkien imitations, juvenile space adventure books, and other highly commercial stuff that I had no interest in writing or reading. |
| 2001 Locus June 21/3 | The existential apocalypse of ‘The Last Train’ has an almost New Wave feel to it. |