Steampunk: Reinventing identity of the future-past

The main goal of this dissertation is to provide thematic structural analysis of Steampunk subculture and its manifestations in mass media. The phenomenon is approached as a complex multi-layered retrofuturistic chronotope positioned within the framework of post-postmodern sociocultural paradigm. The research is not only important as a study of the subculture itself, but also as an analytical framework for further inquiry into post-postmodern phenomena. Triangulation methodology, thematic discourse analysis and textual analysis methods are applied. Steampunk is investigated as a subculture, a literary genre and aesthetics expressed through mass media. The question of historical development of Steampunk resulted in establishment of its "waves" classification. Exposition of post-postmodernism and chronotope in relation to Steampunk follows an overview of relevant modern and postmodern subcultural theories. Consequent chapters explore ideology, products and problematics of the subculture, its literature and presence in contemporary media. Besides providing Steampunk with systematized place within sociocultural and historical contexts and identifying its essential elements, the dissertation elucidates how Steampunk acts as a reflection of post-postmodern society, being one of its facets: an escapist carnivalesque chronotope and a synthetic material-virtual space where participants are engaging in creative interactive revision of past, present and future reality. Keywords: Steampunk, Subculture, post-postmodernism, paradigmatic shift, new media