Neuromancer is often hailed as the archetypal (representative or standard) work of "cyberpunk" literature, a subgenre of science fiction that rose to popularity in the mid-1980s and was later adopted by film and television. Cyberpunk explores typical science fiction themes such as technological and scientific development alongside dystopian themes such as society's collapse, dysfunction, or corruption. These two themes are often juxtaposed against one another; as society advances in its ability to develop new technologies, it also deteriorates. Common dystopian futures that emerge within cyberpunk works feature crime, corporate greed, corruption, drugs, and alienation.
Many literary critics have drawn parallels between postmodernism and cyberpunk, pointing out that both movements focus on late-capitalist, post-industrial societies. Cyberpunk focuses on the potential ramifications technology can have within these future societies, many of which are dominated by corporations and saturated by media. Stylistically, postmodernist and cyberpunk texts also share a focus on blurring metaphor and reality, as well as a break from traditional linear modes of narration in favor of fragmentation or rapid scene transitions. Like other forms of science fiction, cyberpunk seeks to investigate how technology can impact day-to-day life.
In Neuromancer we can see the emblematic qualities of a cyberpunk novel: urban sprawl, riddled with crime, exists against the paradoxical advancements in technology that allow humans to access a virtual reality known as the matrix. However, rather than creating an improved form of life, these technologies are appropriated by corporations and criminals, forcing many into a life of endless "hustling" just to get by. Case also defies the standard "hero" protagonist role. Instead, Case functions as the novel's anti-hero, lacking many of the qualities—courage, bravery, selflessness—that would define a heroic protagonist.
Following Neuromancer's release, the cyberpunk genre has made its way into other forms of media. Famous examples of cyberpunk include the film The Matrix, the manga and film Ghost in the Shell, the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, and the film Robocop. Some argue that Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and its film remake, Blade Runner, are proto-cyberpunk due to their thematic focus on technology-human relations set in a dystopian future.
