Scientific Anticipation Novels from 1860 to 1940



Parallel to Jules Verne’s novels, in the second half of the nineteenth century, a series of fictions explored a new field. They display a scientific and technological imagery, meditating about scientific discoveries. These anticipation novels and dystopias appear as laboratories in which society assimilates scientific changes and the effects they have on cultural productions and social interactions. How do these works reflect about positivism and progress? What image of scientists and engineers do they convey? Through which editorial circuits was this new genre spread, in the media culture of the end of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century? How does this genre articulate itself to science-fiction which developed after WWII in France? Why does the contemporary genre of steampunk revive the fascination and fears about techno-science that these early anticipation novels expressed? Through reading Jules Verne and other authors, we shall analyze how these anticipation novels still question our modernity.

Objectives: Reinforcing competences in literary history, introduction to theories of literary genres, studying a large corpus of novels (« legitimate » literature, popular novels and children’s literature), introduction to epistemocritics, literature/science interactions.



Required text:

- Maurice RENARD, Le Docteur Lerne, ISBN: 978-2-7143-1026-2