VOLUME 5(1) • 2022
Robinson Crusoe: a Puritan Odyssey
Abstract. What makes Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) a magnet to both the general public and scholars worldwide? We will argue in the present paper that the answer to this question lies not in matters of style and literary refinement or in the way in which human passions are rendered, but rath..
The universe of proto-science fiction: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and The last man
Abstract. Deep pain and exuberant joy are the two extremes of Mary Shelley’s biography. In order to understand the genesis of the enigmatic Frankenstein and its remarkable creator, as well as its legacy, we need to focus on the intricate network of events in this author’s life and on the complexitie..
A recondite connection: culture and religion in Tracy Chevalier’s The Virgin blue
Abstract. The American writer Tracy Chevalier – an English resident since 1984 – bridges a multicultural gap through her novel The Virgin blue (1997). In this narrative, the 16th-century French Isabelle du Moulin, a profound believer in God and the Virgin Mary, is affectively connected to the 20th-c..
Numbing numbers: considering the dark side of counting
Abstract. This essay is an attempt to uncover the hidden strategies underlying the use of numbers and quantities in order to reach certain social or political aims. Though statistics is invaluable, its effect can be deceptive since it is a symptom of the quantification of living processes which even..
Toward a singularity: a constellation of perspectives on SF in the eyes of Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr.
Abstract. The following paper aims to review the extensive analysis offered by Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. in The seven beauties of science fiction (2008) on the varied points of confluence the science fiction genre has with the arts and the sciences, with history, linguistics and sociology. He propos..
Hugo Kükelhaus on inhuman architecture: steps towards archetypal architecture
Abstract. The following is a book review of Hugo Kükelhaus’s Inhuman architecture: from animal battery to information factory. The book, first published in German by Kükelhaus in 1972 (Köln: Gaia Verlag), was translated into English and published by Elmar Schenkel in 2007 (Auroville, India: Studio N..