The Translunar Narrative in the Western Tradition
Aaron Parrett(Author)
CRC Press
1st Edition
Published on 31. December 2023
Book
Hardback
148 pages
978-0-8153-9830-1 (ISBN)
Description
Long before Neil Armstrong made the first human footprints on the surface of Earth's Moon in 1969, writers have imagined what such a voyage would be like. This book discusses the most famous translunar literary voyages-from Dante's Paradiso to H.G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon-and examines how humanity's fascination with flight away from the earth coincides with our anxiety about technology and the growing schism between the sciences and the humanities. Authors of post-Apollo era novels such as John Updike (Rabbit Redux) and Saul Bellow (Mr. Sammler's Planet) reiterate much of the awe and many of the concerns expressed by their literary predecessors. This study shows how the translunar narrative is an especially fruitful locus for examining the rift between "the two cultures," and how the translunar accounts might also be a place to begin searching for ways to overcome that rift.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Bosa Roca
United States
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Inc
Target group
College/higher education
Weight
453 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8153-9830-1 (9780815398301)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
Contents: Introduction; Lucian and the satirical origins of the translunar narrative; Theology of transcendence: the translunar journey in Dante and Ariosto; Decentering the cosmos: literature and the new astronomy; A division of labor: science and literature in the translunar narratives of David Russen and Daniel Defoe; Hoax and plausible dream: the return of satire in the 19th-century voyage to the moon; One giant leap: the dream realized and its aftermath; Afterword; References; Index.