Dieselpunk
Entry updated 13 April 2026. Tagged: Theme.
An item of sf Terminology designed to fill the iconological and chronological gap between Steampunk and Cyberpunk, and intended to point to contrarian Alternate Histories set in versions of that era. Its retrofuturist aura may be understood as echoing the genuine, desiderium-loaded insights contained in Steampunk, certainly as espoused by Michael Moorcock in various works. Its Dystopian implications shadow the famous deep refusal of American Genre SF's advocacy of the future inherent in William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984), where the idea of Cyberpunk was definitively fashioned. The invention of the term Dieselpunk has been ascribed to the Videogame designer Lewis Pollak (1974- ) in 2001. Dieselpunk tales, which often feature Airships and other designatedly charismatic forms of world-transgressive Transportation, are inclined to depend on visual signals; an Art Deco influence seems paramount, as conveyed in the sf movie Metropolis (1926) directed by Fritz Lang, which has served as a mother lode of imagery for users of the term. Though the formulation of "dieselpunk" implies an interest in the Technology of transportation, little attention seems to be paid to the transformative rise of the automobile during the period in which Dieselpunk tales are usually set, loosely between the two World Wars (see in particular World War One); this may perhaps be a reason that stories set in this retrofuture are not called Petrolpunk.
Occasional uses of the term may be found in this Encyclopedia. [JC]
further reading
- Stefan, general editor. Dieselpunk: Retro Futures of the American Art Deco Years (London: Graffito Books, 2014) [graph: Tome Wilson has also been listed as author: hb/]
- Sean Wallace, editor.The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk (London: Robinson, 2015) [anth: The Mammoth Book: pb/Joe Roberts]
- Ziggy Quinete. The Retro-Futurism of Dieselpunk (London and elsewhere: Gargoyle Collective, 2025) [nonfiction: hb/]
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