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Steampunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction, usually set in an anachronistic Victorian or quasi-Victorian alternate history setting. It could be described by the slogan "What the past would look like if the future had happened sooner." It includes fiction with science fiction, fantasy or horror themes.1 Origin
The origin of the term "steampunk" was originally as a tongue in cheek variant of " cyberpunk": rather than emphasising the dystopia computer, robotic, and nanotechnology focus of cyberpunk fiction, steampunk fiction focuses more intently on real, theoretical or cinematic Victorian-era technology, including steam engines, clockworks, and difference engineFor the novel by William Gibson, see The Difference Engine A Difference engine is a mechanical special-purpose computer designed to tabulate polynomial functions. Since logarithmic and trigonometric functions can be approximated by polynomials, such a macs. While much of steampunk can be found in Victorian-era settings, it doesn't necessarily have to be, and has expanded into medieval settings, the fantasy genre, and many others.
Originally, like cyberpunk, steampunk was typically dystopian, often with noirFilm noir is a genre of film based in large part on the hard-boiled detective novels that grew out of naturalism, a movement in literature based on realism. Film noir is French for "black film", and is pronounced accordingly ("film nwahr"): the plural is and pulp fictionPulp magazines often called simply "pulps", were inexpensive text fiction magazines widely published in the 1930s 1950s. The first "pulp" is considered to be Frank Munsey's revamped Argosy of 1894. Most of the few pulps still thriving today are science fi themes, as it was a variant of Cyberpunk. As the genre developed, it came to adopt more of the broadly appealing utopiaSee Utopia (disambiguation) for other meanings of this word Utopia in its most common and general meaning, refers to a hypothetical perfect society. It has also been used to describe actual communities founded in attempts to create such a society. The adjn sensibilities of Victorian Scientific RomanceScientific romance is an archaic name for what is now known as the Science Fiction genre. Scientific romance is generally held to have started with Jules Verne's novel Journey to the Center of the Earth''. Bibliography From the Earth to the Moon by Juless. Various secret societiesA secret society is a club or organization whose members do not disclose their membership, and may be sworn to hold it secret. The term is sometimes also used to describe fraternal organizations which may have secret ceremonies. Secret societies are often and conspiracy theories are often featured, and some steampunk includes significant fantasy elements. There are frequently Lovecraftian, occult and Gothic horror influences as well.
2 Types of steampunk
Although originally concieved as being Victorian-era science fiction only, the term has become common use for many related forms of speculative fiction set in the pre- Electric age era. Sub-genres include:
2.1 Historical Steampunk
Any pre-electricity science fiction work with an emphasis on steam- or spring-propelled gadgets. This also includes many alternative history stories in the genre. This category, itself, has sub-genres:
