Alternate World Building: Retrofuturism and Retrophilia in Steampunk and Dieselpunk Narratives

Abstract

This essay draws on William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s steampunk and alternate history novel 'The Difference Engine' (1990) and Len Deighton’s dieselpunk and alternate history thriller 'SS-GB' (1978) for the purpose of discussing the blurring of genres within speculative fiction and addressing retrofuturism and retrophilia within an alternate world building framework. Thus, it provides a background for the analysis of the concept of genre blending and the merging of pre-determined tropes and topics within the scope of science fiction, fantasy, adventure and mystery plots so as to characterize alternate history as a blended genre.

Keywords

• alternate history
• dieselpunk
• speculative fiction
• steampunk
• retrofuturism