“All we know is here we are”: Gothic Aspects of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles

Abstract

The article discusses implications of the way Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950) blends elements of the gothic with more traditional Golden Age science-fiction traditions. I argue that Bradbury’s use of the gothic highlights the fundamental conflicts between approaches to the genre that are, on the one hand, more formulaic, optimistic, extrapolatory, or fantasy-oriented SF, and, on the other, those that which addresses fundamental questions of the human experience. I conclude that his work’s ability to meaningfully juxtapose elements of SF and the gothic allowed it to transcend simplistic genre conventions and become a meaningful addition to the body of important American literature.

Keywords

• science fiction
• gothic
• ray bradbury
• mars