Allienne R. Becker - Böcker

During the first part of the nineteenth century, the Lost Worlds Romance, a new literary form, appeared in which an explorer, most often a scientist, made a voyage to what was then considered to be a remote part of the earth where he discovered a fantastic lost world. This book surveys the Lost Worlds Romance from its beginnings as it evolved from travel literature and utopian fiction to its eclipse when there were no more unexplored corners of the earth and it took to the stars, evolving into modern Science Fiction.Interestingly, these romances reflect the developing natural and social sciences of the times in which they were written. The themes of evolution, teleportation, human longevity, euthanasia, other dimensions, reincarnation, uses of radium, utopian and dystopian societies, among many others, play a prominent part in the discussion of these works. Darwin, Marx, and Freud are shown to have especially influenced the authors of these romances. The book also demonstrates that at a time when the sexual mores of mainline fiction were fairly repressed, writers of the Lost Worlds Romance were permitted much liberty with the erotic imagination. The treatment given to women in these romances is explored.

This exciting collection of essays explores the fantastic in world literature, art, theater, film, and popular culture. Highlights include artwork by Edward Carlos and the essay Staging the Phantasmagorical: The Theatrical Challenges and Rewards of William Butler Yeats by internationally acclaimed Yeats scholar James W. Flannery. Readers will be delighted by the wit of British author Brian Aldiss in his essay If Hamlet's Uncle Had Been a Nicer Guy. From new insights into the connections between Dracula and Frankenstein to a discussion of the Internet, the lively volume offers a diverse look at fantasy and science fiction.

The volume approaches Greeleys novels by comparing him to the 19th-century French writer Honoré de Balzac. A prolific and popular author, Balzac recorded his milieu in tremendous detail, created a fictional universe peopled by hundreds of characters, and explored the role of Catholicism in his world. Because of his training as a sociologist, Greeley brings to his novels a thorough knowledge of popular culture and social theory. And because of his experience as a Roman Catholic priest, he has gained special knowledge of vice, virtue, and the workings of the Church. Like Balzac—now a major canonical author—Greeley has created a world of numerous fictional persons, mapped the details of his culture, and explored the place of Catholicism in contemporary life.