Why has sci-fi literature lost its popularity in Azerbaijan after 1990?

This paper examines the reasons why science fiction works are not popular in the last decades in Azerbaijan. The focus of this research is to determine whether there is a lack of science fiction novels in the market or low-quality of existing modern novels that leads to the unpopularity in the society. The data collection methods were conducting a survey among people and several interviews of literature experts. Libraries and bookshops, as well as school literature textbooks, were observed in the search of science fiction works, as well. The survey identified the reasons for the unpopularity of science fiction and the role of authors, works, libraries, and bookshops in this trend. The findings of the survey indicate that people still read and are involved in this genre and strongly prefer world classics rather than national. While observing Azerbaijan National Library, it was found out that in modern Azerbaijan literature there are enough books in this genre, which are not properly promoted by bookshops, social media, TV programs or school textbooks. Whereas, experts in this field indicated that the newly published novels are not engaging or appealing enough to be bought by a large audience. Additionally, it would be useful to include that science fiction is losing its prestige to the fantasy all over the world, including Azerbaijan. These results partially support earlier articles that describe science fiction as an unpopular genre in Azerbaijan in the XXI century, whereas this research claims that there are readable works, which need for more advancement.

science fiction, fantasy, Azerbaijan literature, XXI century national literature