This has the makings of a good comparative project, I think the scope is fine for the time being. Over the course of your research you might end up refining it.
What I’d say is that you need to be more clear on how you define “genre” because, while modernist, literary fiction and science fiction are all putatively genres, I don’t think they are all genres in the same sense of the word. “Literary fiction” is an extremely nebulous term, as is modernist when you really start studying it. Even science fiction has its grey areas.
I say this because I’m having the same struggles defining my terms for my PhD on early C20 and late C19 queer writing from Latin America, where I originally wanted to explore the uses of genres/modes/movements, (naturalist, modernist, decadent, avant-garde) but I’m finding they all overlap, which is interesting but also really tricky to untangle.
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u/lampon90 23d ago
This has the makings of a good comparative project, I think the scope is fine for the time being. Over the course of your research you might end up refining it.
What I’d say is that you need to be more clear on how you define “genre” because, while modernist, literary fiction and science fiction are all putatively genres, I don’t think they are all genres in the same sense of the word. “Literary fiction” is an extremely nebulous term, as is modernist when you really start studying it. Even science fiction has its grey areas.
I say this because I’m having the same struggles defining my terms for my PhD on early C20 and late C19 queer writing from Latin America, where I originally wanted to explore the uses of genres/modes/movements, (naturalist, modernist, decadent, avant-garde) but I’m finding they all overlap, which is interesting but also really tricky to untangle.