scholarly journals De wereld als sciencefictionroman. Over De goede zoon van Rob van Essen

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-242
Author(s):  
Erica van Boven
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Central Place ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Everyday Reality ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Rob van Essen’s award-winning novel The good son (2018) offers its readers a puzzling reading experience. It contains a tangle of storylines and seems to lack head or tail. This contribution aims to discover composition and meaning by analyzing various aspects provided by the novel itself: timeline, plot, science fiction, ideas, poetica. This approach provides insight into the rich reservoir of meanings, whereby the importance of imagination and creation appears to have a central place. The novel, which can be labelled as a dystopian science fiction novel, as well as a novel of ideas or a novel of poetics, wants us to become aware of the mysteriousness of everyday reality. Nederlandstalig abstract Rob van Essens bekroonde roman De goede zoon (2018) biedt de lezers een verwarrende leeservaring. De roman bevat een wirwar aan verhaallijnen en heeft op het eerste gezicht nauwelijks samenhang. In deze bijdrage wordt geprobeerd compositie en betekenis te ontdekken door middel van een analyse van verschillende aspecten die uit de roman zelf naar voren komen: tijdsverloop, plot, sciencefiction, ideeën, poëtica. Daarmee ontstaat inzicht in een rijk reservoir aan betekenissen waarin het belang van scheppen en verbeelden een centrale plaats heeft. De roman, die beschouwd kan worden als een dystopische sciencefictionroman maar ook als een ideeënroman of een poëticale roman, lijkt ons te willen doordringen van de raadselachtigheid van de alledaagse werkelijkheid.

scholarly journals (Un)Human Relations: Transhumanism in Francesco Verso’s Nexhuman

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-226
Author(s):  
Jana Vizmuller-Zocco
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
Human Organ ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Italian Science ◽  
Limb Prosthesis ◽  
Number Of Authors

Transhumanism is an international movement which es­pouses the idea that any human organ, function, sense, ability, can be augmented and ameliorated with the judicious use of technology. The ethical, cultural, social, biological, economic implications for this view are far-reaching and point to a number of complex ques­tions whose solution eludes researchers so far. One of the possible sources for answers to these is found in science fiction. While trans­humanism is a relatively recent phenomenon (last 25 years or so), science fiction published in English that mirrors some of its issues and ideas has been flourishing for at least as long. In Italy, science fiction is starting to enjoy popularity and critical depth in no small measure due to the untiring abilities of a number of authors. This article analyzes the intersections between human and machine as they are portrayed in Francesco Verso’s Nexhuman. Francesco Verso has published 4 award-winning science fiction novels and a number of short stories. Nexhuman offers a considerable narrative construct which paints a dystopian future where trash is formed and re-formed, sold and reworked; however, strong emotions are not absent, since love may flourish in this “kipple”-laden setting, as well as violence and obsession. Transhumanist ideas explicitly dealt with in the novel include the end of death, the question of the soul, mind uploading, limb prosthesis, the co-existence of humans with mind-uploaded be­ings. The amalgam between human and machine does away with the Self and the Other(s) as separate entities and constructs a completely different Weltanschauung. Nexhuman is not only a transhumanist trailblazer within the flourishing arena of Italian science fiction, but also a springboard for deeper understanding of what makes us human and the extent to which binary categories need to be overcome in order to create a more accommodating world.

“Diabolic rays” in the novel of M.A. Bulgakov “The Fatal Eggs”: about one modern literary topic in science fiction of the 1920s

Neophilology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 548-556
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Kolchanov
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
October Revolution ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Old Russian ◽  
The Road

Science fiction literature of the 1920s connected with the topic of heat rays is studied. Begun in the novel of Herbert George Wells “The War of the Worlds” (1897) and in the novel of A.F. Ossendowski “Brig “Horror” (1913), in the decade after October Revolution it became more widely distributed. In each work heat rays got its name: “death rays” in the novel of H. Dominik (1921), “violet rays” in the novel of V.P. Kataev “The Island of Erendorf” (1924), “red ray”, or “life ray” in the novel of M.A. Bulgakov “The Fatal Eggs” (1924), heat rays in the novel of A.N. Tolstoy “The Garin Death Ray” (1926–1927), “orange ray” in the novel of A.F. Paley “Gulfstream” (1927). In all literary works, including pre-revolutionary ones (except for the last one – “Gulfstream”), the heat ray played an extremely negative role in the development of humanity and civilization. The Martians were the first to use weapons to destroy humanity, then the ray fell into the hands of brilliant scientists. The ray, created by brilliant scientists, most often end up in the hands of self-interested and obsessed people, and Russian writers brought a serious doubt to the scientistic aspirations of the human mind. This theme ran parallel to the road of modern re-search and discoveries in the field of science and technology: in the world laser weapons were be-ing developed as weapons of mass destruction for the future wars of a planetary scale. In the So-viet press, it was “baptized” as the “diabolic rays”, and most important – they tried to implement into the field of social transformations in society, which brought the October Revolution, plans on establishing a socialist system on the entire planet. The central place is given for the novel M.A. Bulgakov’s “The Fatal Eggs”, which absorbed not only the achievements of modern science and technology, not just fantasies of writers – predecessors and contemporaries, but also allusions on the occult motifs in literature and culture: black magic of doctor Faust from the drama-miracle play of J.W. Goethe “Faust”, spells from the “Egyptian Book of the Dead”, old Russian ritual “Troyetsyplyatnitsa”, the egg motif “ad ovo”. Numerous occult details in the story tell about the mechanism of the “red ray”.

scholarly journals An Intersectional Feminist Reading of Bapsi Sidhwa's Water

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-55
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Bapsi Sidhwa ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Insight Into

Intersectionality has been recognized and widely taken by interdisciplinary fields that include Cultural studies, American studies, and Media studies to demonstrate a range of social issues. It focuses on the experiences of people in a different social and political context. The intersectional framework confronts significant social division axes that include race, class, gender, and disability that function together and influence each other. These social axes operate the power structures of a particular society that can cause inequality and discrimination. In literary studies, women's representation is no more confined to European and American academic writings. Within the feminist framework, the South Asian fiction writers also demonstrate a feminist approach in their works. Pakistani authors have indicated religion's exploitation as one of the central intersectional tropes in their literary work. Bapsi Sidhwa is one of the prominent feminist voices from Pakistan in diasporic English Literature. One of her novels, Water (2006), is based on Deepa Mehta's award-winning film, explores the life of the marginal and subaltern Hindu widows in India. The novel provides an insight into the intersectional nature of the Indian Hindu widows in a patriarchal society of a subcontinent where different power domains hold and impose dominant hierarchies. The paper's objective is to highlight the intersection of religion, gender, caste and politics against the backdrop of the Indian anti-colonial movement. It shows how power relations can manipulate cultural norms and use religion as a powerful tool to establish its hegemonic control over these marginalized widows who suffer as silent victims.

scholarly journals Promethean Rebellion in Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451": The Protagonist's Quest

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Fernanda Luísa Feneja
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Symbolic Power ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Dystopian Fiction ◽  
Ray Bradbury ◽  
Fahrenheit 451 ◽  
Insight Into

The article aims to reflect on the role of the myth in science fiction narrative, namely on the specific forms it may take in utopian/dystopian fiction, such as Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury. The personal development of the main character, Guy Montag, constitutes the focus of this analysis, by which we aim to shed some light on the relation between the meaning of the novel and the Promethean features he evinces in the context of a dystropian novel. The symbolic power of fire and of books is also of core relevance to this study, not only because the highlight the hero's inheritance of the Promethean myth, but also because the provide a deeper insight into exegetic possibilities of dystopsian fiction

In Search of Soul

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Nava
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Sacred And Profane ◽  
The Rich

This book explores the meaning of “soul” in sacred and profane incarnations, from its biblical origins to its central place in the rich traditions of black and Latin history. Surveying the work of writers, artists, poets, musicians, philosophers, and theologians, the book shows how their understandings of the “soul” revolve around narratives of justice, liberation, and spiritual redemption. The book contends that biblical traditions and hip-hop emerged out of experiences of dispossession and oppression. Whether born in the ghettos of America or of the Roman Empire, hip-hop and Christianity have endured by giving voice to the persecuted. This book offers a view of soul in living color, as a breathing, suffering, dreaming thing.

Tanggapan dan Horizon Harapan Pembaca terhadap Le Petit Prince Karya A. De Saint-Exupery: Tinjauan Resepsi Sastra

Metahumaniora ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 300
Author(s):  
Tania Intan ◽  
Trisna Gumilar
Keyword(s):  
Research Data ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Reading ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Reader Responses ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Research Type

AbstrakPenelitian ini bertujuan untuk (1) mendekripsikan tanggapan pembaca terhadap novel Le Petit Prince (2) mendeskripsikan horizon harapan pembaca terhadap novel Le Petit Prince, dan (3) mendeskripsikan faktor-faktor penyebab perbedaan tanggapan dan horizon harapan pembaca. Penelitian ini termasuk jenis penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Data penelitian berupa teks yang memuat tanggapan pembaca novel Le Petit Princeyang terdiri dari 20 orang, sedangkan sumber datanya berupa artikel dan makalah yang dimuat di media massa cetak dan elektronik termasuk internet. Instrumen penelitian berupa seperangkat konsep tentang pembaca, tanggapan pembaca, dan horizon harapan. Teknik pengumpulan data dengan cara observasi dan data dianalisis dengan menggunakan teknik deskriptif kualitatif. Hasil penelitian yang didapat sebagai berikut. (1) Seluruh pembaca menanggapi atau menilai positif unsur tema, alur, tokoh, latar, sudut pandang, gaya bahasa, teknik penceritaan, bahasa, dan isi novel Le Petit Prince. (2) Harapan sebagian besar pembaca sebelum membaca novel Le Petit Prince sesuai dengan kenyataan ke sembilan unsur di dalam novel Le Petit Prince, sehingga pembaca dapat dengan mudah menerima dan memberikan pujian pada novel Le Petit Prince. (3) Faktor penyebab perbedaan tanggapan dan horizon harapan pembaca selain perbedaan stressing unsur yang ditanggapi juga karena perbedaan pengetahuan tentang sastra, pengetahuan tentang kehidupan, dan pengalaman membaca karya sastra.Kata kunci: tanggapan pembaca, horizon harapan, Le Petit PrinceAbstractThis study aims to (1) describe reader’s responses to the novel Le Petit Prince (2) to describe the reader's expectations horizon of Le Petit Prince's novel, and (3) to describe the factors causing differences in responses and the horizon of readers' expectations. This research is a descriptive qualitative research type. The research data consist of a set of paragraphs that contains readers' responses to Le Petit Prince's novel, while the data sources are articles and papers published in print and electronic mass media including the internet. The research instruments are a set of reader concepts, reader responses, and expectations horizon. The technique of collecting data is observation and data are analyzed by using qualitative descriptive technique. The results obtained are as follow: (1) All readers respond and valuethe theme elements,plots, characters, background, point of view, language, titles, storytelling techniques, language, and extrinsic novel Le Petit Prince positively. (2) The expectations of most readers before reading Le Petit Prince's novels are in accordance with the nine facts in Le Petit Prince's novel, so readers can easily accept and give prise to Le Petit Prince's novel. (3) Factors causing differences in responses and horizon of readers' expectations other than the stressing differences of the elements being addressed also due to the differences in knowledge of literature, knowledge of life and literary reading experience. Keywords: readers responses, expectations horizon, Le Petit Prince

A Compact Embodiment of Pluralities and Denial of Origins: Atwood’s The Year of The Flood

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Rana Sağıroğlu
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
Why Questions ◽  
Near Future

Margaret Atwood, one of the most spectacular authors of postmodern movement, achieved to unite debatable and in demand critical points of 21st century such as science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism in the novel The Year of The Flood written in 2009. The novel could be regarded as an ecocritical manifesto and a dystopic mirror against today’s degenerated world, tending to a superficial base to keep the already order in use, by moving away from the fundamental solution of all humanity: nature. Although Atwood does not want her works to be called science fiction, it is obvious that science fiction plays an introductory role and gives the novel a ground explaining all ‘why’ questions of the novel. However, Atwood is not unjust while claiming that her works are not science fiction because of the inevitable rapid change of 21st century world becoming addicted to technology, especially Internet. It is easily observed by the reader that what she fictionalises throughout the novel is quite close to possibility, and the world may witness in the near future what she creates in the novel as science fiction. Additionally, postmodernism serves to the novel as the answerer of ‘how’ questions: How the world embraces pluralities, how heterogeneous social order is needed, and how impossible to run the world by dichotomies of patriarchal social order anymore. And lastly, ecocriticism gives the answers of ‘why’ questions of the novel: Why humanity is in chaos, why humanity has organized the world according to its own needs as if there were no living creatures apart from humanity. Therefore, The Year of The Flood meets the reader as a compact embodiment of science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism not only with its theme, but also with its narrative techniques.

The Monk

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Lewis
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Young Girl ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
Ghost Stories ◽  
Gothic Fiction ◽  
Black Magic ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Profound Insight

‘He was deaf to the murmurs of conscience, and resolved to satisfy his desires at any price.’ The Monk (1796) is a sensational story of temptation and depravity, a masterpiece of Gothic fiction and the first horror novel in English literature. The respected monk Ambrosio, the Abbot of a Capuchin monastery in Madrid, is overwhelmed with desire for a young girl; once having abandoned his monastic vows he begins a terrible descent into immorality and violence. His appalling fall from grace embraces blasphemy, black magic, torture, rape, and murder, and places his very soul in jeopardy. Lewis’s extraordinary tale drew on folklore, legendary ghost stories, and contemporary dread inspired by the terrors of the French Revolution. Its excesses shocked the reading public and it was condemned as obscene. The novel continues to beguile and shock readers today with its gruesome catalogue of iniquities, while at the same time giving a profound insight into the deep anxieties experienced by British citizens during one of the most turbulent periods in the nation’s history.

The Novel Theology of H. G. Wells

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-123
Author(s):  
Stuart Bell
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
The Novel ◽  
British Army ◽  
Rebecca West ◽  
The Way

Abstract “Lambeth Palace is my Washpot. Over Fulham have I cast my breeches.” So declared the novelist and secularist H. G. Wells in a letter to his mistress, Rebecca West, in May 1917. His claim was that, because of him, Britain was “full of theological discussion” and theological books were “selling like hot cakes”. He was lunching with liberal churchmen and dining with bishops. Certainly, the first of the books published during Wells’s short “religious period”, the novel Mr. Britling Sees It Through, had sold very well on both sides of the Atlantic and made Wells financially secure. Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy (“Woodbine Willie”) wrote that, “Everyone ought to read Mr. H. G. Wells’s great novel, Mr. Britling Sees It Through. It is a gallant and illuminating attempt to state the question, and to answer it. His thought has brought him to a very real and living faith in God revealed in Jesus Christ, and has also brought relief to many troubled minds among the officers of the British Army.” Yet, Wells’s God was explicitly a finite God, and his theology was far from orthodox. How can we account for his boast and for the clerical affirmation which he certainly did receive? This article examines and re-evaluates previous accounts of the responses of clergy to Wells’s writing, correcting some narratives. It discusses the way in which many clergy used Mr. Britling as a means by which to engage in a populist way with the question of theodicy, and examines the letters which Wells received from several prominent clerics, locating their responses in the context of their own theological writings. This is shown to be key to understanding the reaction of writers such as Studdert Kennedy to Mr. Britling Sees It Through. Finally, an assessment is made of the veracity of Wells’s boasting to his mistress, concluding that his claims were somewhat exaggerated. “Lambeth Palace is my Washpot, Over Fulham have I cast my breeches.” Mit diesen Worten erklärte der literarisch außergewöhnlich erfolgreiche und entschieden säkular denkende, kirchenkritische Schriftsteller und Science-Fiction-Pionier Herbert George Wells seiner Geliebten, dass seinetwegen Großbritannien “full of theological discussion” sei. Nicht ohne Eitelkeit schrieb er es seinem im September 1916 mit Blick auf den Krieg geschriebenen und stark autobiographisch gefärbten Roman Mr. Britling Sees it Through von knapp 450 Seiten zu, dass theologische Bücher reißenden Absatz fänden. Auch war er stolz darauf, liberale Kleriker zum Lunch zu treffen und von Bischöfen zum abendlichen Dinner eingeladen zu werden. In einer kurzen Phase seines Lebens war – oder inszenierte sich – Wells als ein frommer, gläubiger Mensch. Sein damals veröffentlichter Roman Mr. Britling Sees It Through verkaufte sich sowohl in Nordamerika als auch im Heimatland so gut, dass der Autor nun definitiv finanziell gesichert war. Der anglikanische Priester und Dichter Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, der im Ersten Weltkrieg Woodbine Willie genannt wurde, weil er verletzten und sterbenden Soldaten in den Phasen der Vorbereitung auf den Tod Woodbine-Zigaretten anbot, empfahl die Lektüre von Wells’ “great novel” Mr. Britling mit den Worten: “It is a gallant and illuminating attempt to state the question, and to answer it. His thought has brought him to a very real and living faith in God revealed in Jesus Christ, and has also brought relief to many troubled minds among the officers of the British Army.” Allerdings war H. G. Wells’ Gott ein durchaus endlicher Gott, und seine Theologie war alles andere als orthodox. Wie lassen sich dennoch seine evidente Prahlerei und die emphatische Zustimmung zu seinem Roman in den britischen Klerikereliten erklären? Im Aufsatz werden zunächst einige ältere Deutungen der Zustimmung führender Kleriker zu Wells’ Roman untersucht und einige der dabei leitenden Deutungsmuster kritisch infrage gestellt. Deutlich wird, dass nicht wenige anglikanische Geistliche Mr. Britling dazu nutzten, um höchst populistisch das umstrittene Theodizeeproblem anzusprechen. Auch werden die Briefe prominenter Geistlicher an Wells analysiert, mit Blick auf ihre eigenen Publikationen. Diese Reaktionen haben stark Studdert Kennedys Haltung zu Mr. Britling Sees It Through beeinflusst. Besonders aufrichtig war Wells mit Blick auf sich selbst allerdings nicht. Die Selbstinszenierung gegenüber seiner Geliebten war einfach nur peinliche Übertreibung.

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