Science, fiction, and the fin-de-siècle periodical press
By: Will Tattersdill
Series: Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture -- 105
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781107144651
Subjects: Serialized fiction; English periodicals; Popular culture; History and criticism; Criticism and interpretation; History
Description: "In this revisionary study, Will Tattersdill argues against the reductive 'two cultures' model of intellectual discourse by exploring the cultural interactions between literature and science embodied in late nineteenth-century periodical literature, tracing the emergence of the new genre that would become known as 'science fiction'. He examines a range of fictional and non-fictional fin-de-siècle writing around distinct scientific themes: Martian communication, future prediction, X-rays, and polar exploration. Every chapter explores a major work of H. G. Wells, but also presents a wealth of exciting new material drawn from a variety of late Victorian periodicals. Arguing that the publications in which they appeared, as well as the stories themselves, played a crucial part in the development of science fiction, Tattersdill uses the form of the general interest magazine as a way of understanding the relationship between the arts and the sciences, and the creation of a new literary genre"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction: material entanglements; 1. Intrinsic intelligibility; 2. Distance over time; 3. New photography; 4. Further northward; Conclusion: bad science and the study of English.