Scientific Romance Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
My course essay of H. G. Wells module.
Grant Allen (1848-1899) was a well-known populariser of natural history who was widely recognised for his extensive knowledge of science and his ability to refashion complex ideas for general audiences. But his status as a popular writer,... more
Grant Allen (1848-1899) was a well-known populariser of natural history who was widely recognised for his extensive knowledge of science and his ability to refashion complex ideas for general audiences. But his status as a popular writer, coupled with a lack of formal training, placed him at the margins of professional science and impeded his serious scientific ambitions. Although Allen tended to portray fiction-writing as an economic necessity, both contemporary and recent critics have noted stylistic innovations that place him within germinal popular genres of the fin de siècle. This paper aims to show that Allen's contributions to late-Victorian popular literature derive in part from his negotiation of fiction and non-fiction genres. Focusing particularly on his experiments with the short story, it considers how and to what extent he distinguished scientific from literary writing, while revealing his views on plausibility in fiction to be more complex than is typically recognised. Little-studied reviews of Allen's popular fiction suggest the wider contemporary impact of his experimentations. That critics recognised his style as unconventional endorses a reappraisal of his place within developments in late-Victorian popular literature.
The quotation placed in the title of the article comes from an early text of an English author H. G. Wells (1866-1946) who is considered as the father of science fiction through his invention of the genre called scientific romance. The... more
The quotation placed in the title of the article comes from an early text of an English author H. G. Wells (1866-1946) who is considered as the father of science fiction through his invention of the genre called scientific romance. The quoted text, entitled “The Chronic Argonauts” (1888), is generally considered as the first version of The Time Machine (1895), the seminal text for the future development of new conventions of the emerging genre. This direct meta-fictional encouragement expressed in the authorial question points to the possibility of reading H. G. Wells’s scientific romances in the light of fable and fairy-tale conventions. They are used in the function of subsidiary generic influence. Such perspective, surprisingly, has not been used in the scholarly interpretations of Wells’s texts. There is a common practice of acknowledging the influence of old literary tradition, including fairy-tale generic features, on the development of science fiction (Głowiński, “science fiction” 500-501, Martuszewska 15, Gunn 9). However, this impact has not been analysed on the example of particular texts and techniques used by Wells, being taken rather as an a’priori assumption mentioned in the studies of popular literature. Tracing of the particular fable and fairy-tale strategies and devices in selected Wellsian scientific romances can thus offer a fresh perspective on the understanding of semantic and systemic aspect of the fictional world of these texts. It is, therefore, of particular interest to trace the techniques of characterisation, spatial patterns and plot motifs such as that of a journey to another world or encounter of the human and animal world which mark Wells’s affinity with the genres of fairy tale and fable.
Northern Nineteenth Century Network: Victorian Legacies , University of Huddersfield, 29th October 2014.
Overview on world science fiction theatre in the first half of the 20th century
The writings of H.G. Wells have had a profound influence on literary and cinematic depictions of the present and the possible future, and modern science fiction continues to be indebted to his “scientific romances,” such as The Time... more
The writings of H.G. Wells have had a profound influence on literary and cinematic depictions of the present and the possible future, and modern science fiction continues to be indebted to his “scientific romances,” such as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds and The Island of Doctor Moreau. Interpreted and adapted for more than a century, Wells’s texts have resisted easy categorization and are perennial subjects for emerging critical and theoretical perspectives. The author examines Well's works through the poststructuralist philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. Via this critical perspective, concepts now synonymous with science fiction—such as time travel, alien invasion and transhumanism—demonstrate Wells’s intrinsic relevance to the science fiction genre and contemporary thought.
Visiting Scholars Departmental Seminar
Department of English, University of Buckingham
UK
March 2017
This article examines Wells’s reliance upon urban topography, epistemological estrangement, and city walking to construct his fantastical London fictions. By exploring these narrative strategies, the article will suggest that Wells fused... more
This article examines Wells’s reliance upon urban topography, epistemological estrangement, and city walking to construct his fantastical London fictions. By exploring these narrative strategies, the article will suggest that Wells fused fantastical plot and hyperrealist detail in order to challenge the mental inertia that had taken hold of late-Victorian and Edwardian London life. Wells thus utilised the fantastic as an elastic literary mode whose very impossibility opened up new opportunities for reimagining urban space.