Abstract
Steampunk is a vibrant and compelling sub-genre of fantasy and science fiction. The works of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and the 'Edisonade' dime novels anticipate the mix of Victorian and Edwardian settings and outlandish steam and clockwork technology that has come to characterise a wide variety of contemporary media. I argue that the sheer diversity of steampunk material means the sub-genre is best understood as a 'fuzzy set'. I utilise conceptions of 'assemblage memory' drawn from the work of Anna Reading (2010) and Amit Pinchevski and Paul Frosh (2010) as a means of understanding the manifold ways in which various creators collide historical and fantastical iconography with reimagined technology to produce material that is distinctively 'steampunk', despite the sub-genre's ambiguity.
Keywords
assemblage, cross-media, fantasy, memory, science fiction, steampunk
How to Cite
Harvey, C. B., (2014) “Devices and Desires: Steampunk and Assemblage Memory”, C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-Century Writings 3(1), 75–88.