Wikipedia says:
Steampunk is a
sub-genre of
science fiction that typically features
steam-powered machinery,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk#cite_note-1 especially in a setting inspired by
industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century. Steampunk works are often set in an
alternative history of the 19th century's British
Victorian era or
American "Wild West", in a
post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has regained mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power. Steampunk perhaps most recognizably features
anachronistic technologies or
retro-futuristic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them, and is likewise rooted in the era's perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. Such technology may include fictional machines like those found in the works of
H. G. Wells and
Jules Verne, or the modern authors
Philip Pullman,
Scott Westerfeld,
Stephen Hunt and
China Miéville. Other examples of steampunk contain alternative history-style presentations of such technology as
lighter-than-air airships,
analog computers, or such digital
mechanical computers as
Charles Babbage's
Analytical Engine.
Steampunk may also, though not necessarily, incorporate additional elements from the genres of
fantasy,
horror,
historical fiction, alternate history, or other branches of
speculative fiction, making it often a
hybrid genre. The term
steampunk's first known appearance was in 1987, though it now retroactively refers to many works of fiction created even as far back as the 1950s or 1960s.
Steampunk also refers to any of the artistic styles, clothing fashions, or
subcultures, that have developed from the aesthetics of steampunk fiction, Victorian-era fiction,
art nouveau design, and films from the mid-20th century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk#cite_note-Duluth1-2 Various modern utilitarian objects have been
modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.
