SF
SF (noun; adjectival form SFnal or Sfal) as used on this site is, like feminism, a big tent: Here it means any fiction that is not, at the time it was written, "realistic". "SF" therefore includes "science fiction", "speculative fiction", "alternative history", "utopian fiction", "surrealism", "fantasy", "magical realism", "supernatural fiction", "myth", "folklore", "horror", "weird fiction", and certainly "scientifiction". Ellen Datlow has described some apparently realistic fiction as having "speculative sensibilities". SF, properly viewed, can encompass fiction that blurs the lines, such as folk tales and parables, which sometimes have supernatural or nonrealistic elements, and other times not; or gothic romance, which similarly sometimes have supernatural elements, or suggestions of supernatural elements.
Any and all media are open game: literature, art, graphic novels, films/TV, music, theater, opera, etc.
Yes:
- speculative fiction
- science fiction
- sciffy
- sci-fi
- sf
- scientifiction
- alternative history
- utopian fiction (including dystopias)
- fantasy
- supernatural fiction
- fabulation and fables
- fairy tales
- ghost stories
- myths (whether sourced in living or dead religions)
- folklore & folk tales & parables
- horror
- gothic
- surrealism
- weird fiction
- magical realism (marketing term or not)
- slipstream
- interstitial fiction
- speculative sensibilities
No:
- the other stuff (which, while it's not SF and is not therefore the subject of this wiki, may appropriately be referenced for comparison, examples, influences, etc.)
see Genres