“ Steampunk “

After learning the basics of Steampunk, and what it’s about, me and my classmates job was to come up with a inquiry question relating to a more specific, detailed subcategory of the genre itself. I started to brainstorm about very specific ideas, and then I thought to myself, “Why don’t I ask myself one of the bigger questions I still don’t have the answer to yet?” That’s when I came up with my question; where did the term steampunk derive from?

We have learned about what Steampunk is, and what it means for something to be Steampunk, but we haven’t learned why. I wanted to know what the purpose of steampunk was, and why it has since grown in to such a giant genre. To understand that though, I needed to first grasp a solid idea of where steampunk originated.

Steampunk is heavily influenced by the literary works of authors such as Jules Vern, Mary Shelley, and H.G. Wells. However the first documented use of the term is from the 1980’s when author K. W. Jeter was in need of a word for the style described in other literature such as Tim Powers, James Baylock’s and his own earlier novels. All of these had one thing in common, they were all set in a Victorian Era, and implemented various forms of scientifically technological fiction that was deemed to be of another era. They took the word “cyberpunk”, then tweaked and reproduced it, calling it “steampunk”.

To sum it up, authors were writing about a certain subgenre of science fiction that happened really been uncovered at the time. They needed to create a term to encompass the category their works all seemed to fit under. We now know of Steampunk as a retrofuturistic grimy aesthetic refurbished by both authors worldwide and passionate enthusiasts alike.