Is Genre Defined by Content or Worldview?

Some thoughts on Ted Chiang, science fiction, Star Wars, and philosophies of genre.

From Magritte’s The Castle of the Pyrenees

This semester I taught a course on different speculative fiction forms from fabulism and horror to surrealism and science fiction. Part of the class was trying to tease out the differences between these genres and styles. What makes a magical realism world different than a high fantasy one? What modes does surre…