New Wave Science Fiction - Overview

Overview

The term New Wave refers to the science fiction of the 1960s which emphasized stylistic experimentation and literary merit over scientific accuracy or prediction. It was conceived as a deliberate break from the traditions of pulp SF, which many of the writers involved considered irrelevant and unambitious. The most prominent source of New Wave science fiction was the magazine New Worlds under the editorship of Michael Moorcock, who assumed the position in 1964. Moorcock sought to use the magazine to "define a new avant-garde role" for science fiction by the use of "new literary techniques and modes of expression." It was also a period marked by the emergence of a greater variety of voices in science fiction, most notably the rise in the number of female writers, including but not limited to Joanna Russ, Ursula K. Le Guin and James Tiptree, Jr.