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No. 2537
A setting in which steam power has developed beyond its historical limits, usually to a fantastical and unrealistic extent, either in place of more modern forms of technology or in a different direction. Often it is associated with the fashions and styles prevalent during the Age of Steam, but they're not a vital component of the subgenre. Obviously, the 50s were post-Age of Steam, but an alternate history in which steam power remained predominant until the 50s and which therefore had 50s mores and fashions existing alongside steam technology would be steampunk. Victorian speculative fiction tends to fall into the steampunk category, because their hypothetical future technology is based on the technology of the day. By some looser definitions, you could also consider any setting in which steam power is widely used, and which also contains fantastical or science fiction elements, to be steampunk, regardless of whether the steam technology is more or less advanced than actual historical tech.
Developed out of cyberpunk, hence the "punk" appellation despite steampunk rarely being actually punk. Where cyberpunk proposes a near-future extrapolating from current computer technology, steampunk proposes an alternate future or past extrapolating from roughly the Victorian era in a different direction to the historical progression of technology.
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