Introduction to History and Speculative Fiction: Essays in Honor of Gunlög Fur

This introductory chapter makes the case that despite different epistemological starting points, history and speculative fiction are both arguably “literatures of cognitive estrangement.” Both can help expose invisible problematic aspects of their authors’ and readers’ societies and suggest possible solutions or futures. Summarizing relevant existing literature and theoretical perspectives, the chapter suggests the usefulness of the postcolonial concept of concurrences for both modes and different possible ways to define the two. It also investigates the relationship that history and speculative fiction have to colonial ideology and ecocriticism, as well as presenting the structure of the book.