Utopian literature and science : from the scientific revolution to Brave New World and beyond / Patrick Parrinder, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Reading, UK.
1. Introduction -- Part I. Sciences of Observations and Intervention: 2. Beyond the Telescope: From Astronomy to (Dystopian) Fiction; 3. A Sylph under the Microscope: Science and Romance; 4. Satanism and Genetics: Haldane's Daedalus and Its Begetters -- Part II. The Human Animal: 5. Eugenics, Utopia, Eudemonics: Bellamy, Galton and Morris; 6. Strains of the Non-Human: The Coming Race, A Crystal Age, Erewhon; 7. Gorilla Warfare: Darwin, Freud, and the Stone Age Romance; 8. From Human to Animal: Wells and Kafka -- Part III. Modern Utopias and Post-Human Worlds: 9. War is Peace: Conscription and Mobilisation in the Modern Utopia; 10. Towards the Singularity? Čapek's R.U.R. and its Times; 11. Olaf Stapledon and the Shape of Things to Come; 12. The Expulsion of the Poets.
Summary:
"Scientific progress is usually seen as a precondition of modern utopias, but science and utopia are frequently at odds. Utopian Literature and Science traces the interactions of sciences such as astronomy, microscopy, genetics and anthropology with 19th- and 20th-century utopian and dystopian writing and modern science fiction. Ranging from Galileo's observations with the telescope to current ideas of the post-human and the human-animal boundary, the author's re-examination of key literary texts brings a fresh perspective to the paradoxes of utopian thinking since Plato. This book is essential reading for teachers and students of literature and science studies, utopian studies, and science fiction studies, as well as students of 19th and early 20th-century literature more generally"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.