Speculative fiction
umbrella genre of fiction that departs from realism, comprising science fiction, horror, fantasy, alternative history, post-apocalyptic, gothic, superhero fiction etc.
Speculative fiction is an umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or other highly imaginative realms or beings.
This catch-all genre includes but is not limited to fantasy, science fiction, social science fiction, science fantasy, superhero, paranormal and supernatural horror, alternate history, magical realism, slipstream, weird fiction, utopia, dystopia, and apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction. In other words, the genre presents individuals, events, or places beyond the ordinary real world.
The term speculative fiction has been used for works of literature, film, television, drama, video games, radio, and hybrid media.
Speculative versus realistic fiction
The umbrella genre of speculative fiction is characterized by a lesser degree of adherence to plausible depictions of individuals, events, or places, while the umbrella genre of realistic fiction (partly crossing over with literary realism) is characterized by a greater degree of adherence to such depictions. For instance, speculative fiction may depict an entirely imaginary universe or one in which the laws of nature do not strictly apply (often the subgenre of fantasy). Alternatively, the genre depicts actual historical moments, except that they have concluded in an entirely imaginary way or been followed by major imaginary events (i.e., the subgenre of alternative history). As another alternative, the genre depicts impossible technology or technology that defies current scientific understanding or capabilities (i.e., the subgenre of science fiction).
By contrast, realistic fiction involves a story whose basic setting is real and whose events could plausibly occur in the real world. One realistic fiction subgenre is historical fiction, which is centred around actual major events and time periods of the past.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Speculative fiction” as umbrella genre of fiction that departs from realism, comprising science fiction, horror, fantasy, alternative history, post-apocalyptic, gothic, superhero fiction etc. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as umbrella genre of fiction that departs from realism, comprising science fiction, horror, fantasy, alternative history, post-apocalyptic, gothic, superhero fiction etc. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q9326077. The Library of Congress control number is sh2010015283. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Speculative fiction” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.