FROM LABORATORY TO LITERATURE: THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TECHNO-THRILLER IN THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN
Keywords:
Techno-thriller, Michael Crichton, the Andromeda Strain, scientific discourse, documentary realism, Cold War anxieties, technological risk, genre formation, science and literature, paratextual elements, biotechnology in fiction.Abstract
Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain (1969) is widely regarded as a foundational text of the techno-thriller genre, a form that blends scientific accuracy, technological speculation, and high-stakes suspense. This article examines how The Andromeda Strain expresses and shapes the defining conventions of the techno-thriller. The analysis focuses on Crichton’s narrative techniques, including documentary realism, multi-modal text elements, scientific exposition, and crisis-driven plot structure. Furthermore, the article explores how the novel reflects late-20th-century anxieties about biotechnology, military experimentation, and the limits of human control in the face of rapidly advancing science. Through this lens, The Andromeda Strain emerges not only as a gripping narrative but also as a conceptual blueprint for the techno-thriller genre.
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https://www.michaelcrichton.com/works/the-andromeda-strain/
https://ojs.renaissance.com.uz/index.php/nrj/article/view/2409
https://literopedia.com/the-andromeda-strain-summary-by-michael-crichton
