The only truly alien planet is earth: J. G. Ballard, dalla fantascienza al mainstream tra romanticismo e surrealismo

As an author J. G. Ballard used to deal with different genres and topics, producing several short stories and a number of novels. Yet he has always been true to himself. He started as a science fiction writer, which in a sense he was until the end. With some occasional romantic references, over the years Ballard’s fiction ranged from a personal surrealistic mood to novelized autobiography. He also had a keen interest in psychopathology and society, while being somehow haunted by his experience as a civilian prisoner of war in his early teenage years. This study shows how, like a chameleon, he often appeared under different guises, but always stayed undisputedly ‘Ballardian’.