My research interests include medical humanities, disability studies and memoirs by parents of autistic children in the US and Germany, 20th and 21st Century German literature and film, transnational film history, Cold War culture, utopian theory, theories of the fantastic, Eastern European science fiction, fairy tale, eco-criticism, women’s studies, Heimat studies.
Recent publications on gender and SF, fascism in Iron Sky, transformative listening in leadership, and Charting a Pathway to Intellectual Leadership model, and Less Commonly Taught Languages as DEI. Look for a new article on GDR Disco Films with Melissa Elliott in summer 2023!
See more below……
Submit a manuscript to the World Science Fiction Series with Peter Lang Oxford
Series editors – Sonja Fritzsche and Gerry Canavan
The book series World Science Fiction Studies understands science fiction to be a global phenomenon and explores the various manifestations of the genre in cultures around the world. It recognizes the importance of Anglo-American contributions to the field but promotes the critical study of science fiction in other national traditions, particularly German-speaking. It also supports the investigation of transnational discourses that have shaped the science fiction tradition since its inception. The scope of the series is not limited to one particular medium and encourages study of the genre in both print and digital forms (e.g. literature, film, television, transmedial). Theoretical approaches (e.g. post-human, gender, genre theory) and genre studies (e.g. film shorts, transgenre such as science fiction comedy) with a focus beyond the Anglo-American tradition are also welcome.
Proposals for monographs and edited collections in either English or German are invited.
The Routledge Companion to Gender and Science Fiction (2023) co-edited together with Lisa Yaszek, Keren Omry, and Wendy Gay Pearson
The first large-scale reference work of its kind, critically assessing the relations of gender and genre in science fiction, especially—but not exclusively—as explored in speculative art by women and LGBTQ+ artists across the world. This global volume builds upon the traditions of interdisciplinary inquiry by connecting established topics in gender studies and science fiction studies with emergent ideas from researchers in different media. This is an essential resource for students and scholars studying gender, sexuality or science fiction.
Science Fiction Circuits of the South and East (2018) co-edited with Anindita Banerjee
“The first collection of its kind, this anthology documents a radically different geography and history of science fiction in the world. Western, specifically Anglo-American, SF is not the only hub of the global trade of alternative realities and futures. Rather it is but only one of several competing flows and circuits of distribution, contacts, influence, translation, adaptation, and collaboration, across space and time.”
It features chapters by Anindita Banerjee, Jinyi Chu, Antonio Cordoba, Miguel Garcia, Sibelan Forrester, Carl Gelderloos, Pablo Mukherjee, and myself.
The Liverpool Companion to World Science Fiction Film (2014) Now in Paperback and E-book (2021); edited by Sonja Fritzsche
The collection offers critical insights into SF far beyond the more common Anglo-American narratives. Contributors take either a national or transnational approach, and stretch the geographic and conceptual boundaries of science fiction cinema. Film traditions represented include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States plus a chapter on digital shorts. From the dinosaur myth that became Godzilla to Brazilian science fiction comedy, from China’s Death Ray to Kenya’s Pumzi, this book will broaden the horizons of scholars and students of Science Fiction.
It features chapters by Ritch Calvin, Jie Zhang, Jessica Langer and Dominic Allessio, Takayuki Tatsumi, Derek Johnston, Jason Merrill, Evan Torner, Daniel Tron, Katie Moylan, Rafaella Boccolini, Robyn Citizen, Mariano Paz, Alfredo Suppia, and Pawel Frelik.
Science Fiction Literature in East Germany (2006) by Sonja Fritzsche –
This book is open access at the link above. Download the pdf.
East German science fiction enabled its authors to create a subversive space in another time and place. One of the country’s most popular genres, it outlined futures that often went beyond the party’s official version. Many utopian stories provided a corrective vision, intended to preserve and improve upon East German communism. This study is an introduction to East German science fiction. The book begins with a chapter on German science fiction before 1949. It then spans the entire existence of the country (1949-1990) and outlines key topics essential to understanding the genre: popular literature, socialist realism, censorship, fandom, and international science fiction. An in-depth discussion addresses notions of high and low literature, elements of the fantastic and utopia as critical narrative strategies, ideology and realism in East German literature, gender, and the relation between literature and science. Through a close textual analysis of three science fiction novels, the author expands East German literary history to include science fiction as a valuable source for developing a multi-faceted understanding of the country’s short history. Finally, an epilogue notes new titles and developments since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Selected Works by Sonja Fritzsche in Bepress.
This is a guide to my selected works online. Those that are available via pdf are included and they were compiled by the illustrious Illinois Wesleyan University librarian Stephanie Davis Kahl. Thanks for your dedication Stephanie and the amazing IWU librarians!!!
“Fascist Drag: Race, Laibach, and Playing Nazi in the Iron Sky Universe” in Science Fiction Film and Television vol. 15, no. 1, 2022, pp. 21-39. Project MUSE.
The intersections of race, drag, gender, and fascism in Timo Vuorensola’s Iron Sky.
“Science Fiction Fandom in United Berlin” World Literature Today (November 2014)
This article outlines briefly how central fandom has been to the distribution and translation of contemporary German science fiction.
“German SF” from Lars Schmeink’s “A Virtual Introduction to Science Fiction” Online Toolkit for Teaching SF. (2012).
This is a fabulous Web resource developed by Lars simultaneously for a class he taught on science fiction at the University of Hamburg and for the Internet as well.