Novum (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for ''new thing'') is a term used by

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

Darko Suvin Darko Ronald Suvin (born Darko Šlesinger) is a Yugoslavia, Yugoslav-born academic, writer and critic who became a professor (now emeritusDavid JohnstonConvocation: Honorary degrees and emeritus professorships McGill Reporter, Volume 33, No. 05, ...

and others to describe the scientifically plausible innovations used by

narratives.

Origin

Suvin learned the term from

Ernst Bloch Ernst Simon Bloch (; July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977; pseudonyms: Karl Jahraus, Jakob Knerz) was a German Marxist philosopher. Bloch was influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as by apocalyptic and religious thinkers ...

, whose work is cited frequently in ''Metamorphoses of Science Fiction''. Suvin argues that the genre of science fiction is distinguished from fantasy by the story being driven by a novum validated by logic he calls

cognitive estrangement Darko Ronald Suvin (born Darko Šlesinger) is a Yugoslav-born academic, writer and critic who became a professor (now emeritusDavid JohnstonConvocation: Honorary degrees and emeritus professorships McGill Reporter, Volume 33, No. 05, November 2 ...

. This means that the hypothetical "new thing" which the story is about can be imagined to exist by scientific means rather than by magic, i.e., by the ''factual reporting of fictions'' and by relating them in a plausible way to reality.

References

*''Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction'' *''Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre'' by

. 1979. * Science fiction studies {{sf-stub