Science, Fiction, and the Fin-De-Siecle Periodical Press

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.

List of contents

Introduction: material entanglements; 1. Intrinsic intelligibility; 2. Distance over time; 3. New photography; 4. Further northward; Conclusion: bad science and the study of English; Bibliography.

About the author

Will Tattersdill is Lecturer in Victorian Literature in the Department of English at the University of Birmingham.

Summary

This fascinating study explores the ways in which fin-de-siecle periodicals portrayed science, both imaginatively and intellectually. It shows how general interest magazines and those who wrote for them, particularly H. G. Wells, contributed to the birth of a new genre: science fiction.

Product details

• Authors: Will Tattersdill, Will (University of Birmingham) Tattersdill
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.03.2016
• EAN: 9781107144651
• ISBN: 978-1-107-14465-1
• Dimensions: 160 mm x 236 mm x 14 mm
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature & Culture; Cambridge Studies in Nineteent; Cambridge Studies in Nineteent; Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature & Culture; Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Social sciences, law, business > Business > Individual industrial sectors, branches