Around the end of the 1930's, when American science fiction was just beginning to emerge, the literature of scientific imagination had already several traditions in France stemming from Jules Verne, J.-H. Rosny the Elder, Maurice Renard and many popular novelists. This literature, however, never succeeded in establishing itself as a literary genre in its own right. It was only with the discovery of American science fiction in the fifties that science fiction was recognized as such in France. / The problematic situation of French science fiction before and after 1950 can only be explained by means of sound hypotheses concerning the genological specificity of science fiction, on the one hand, and a thorough textual analysis of works reflecting the various strains of imagination in our period, on the other hand. / The introduction reviews the current state of research in science fiction, focussing on the main essays on the history and theory of the genre. We then expose our own hypotheses on science fiction as a "poetics of otherness". / An examination of French science fiction from 1918 to 1968 reveals that the genre is made up of heterogeneous strains, despite a real community of themes. There are five such strains, which we analyze through five authors exemplifying their specific characteristics: (1) A strain whose particular characteristic is the appeal of "otherness": J.-H. Rosny the Elder; (2) A strain that could be called "middle-of-the-road science fiction", which is a blend of science fiction proper, the fantastic and the popular novel: Maurice Renard; (3) The "catastrophic imagination" strain: Jacques Spitz; (4) The mass-produced science fiction strain: B. R. Bruss; (5) A strain characterized by an "imaginative drift": Stefan Wul. / In conclusion, the chronic state of crisis of French science fiction is interpreted as a symptom of the difficulty in achieving this literary genre's potential as a "poetics of otherness".

Zugl.: München, Univ., Diss., 2007

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1979. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-157). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Stuttgart, FH, Diplomarb., 2000.

Texte remanié de: Tesi di dottorato--Letterature moderne e comparate--Università degli studi di Bari, 1997. / Bibliogr. p. 257-267. Index.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Soviet science fiction; that is, all science fiction published in Russia after 1917 to about 1967. The selection of literature from the 1960's was random; the selection from previous years was determined principally by its availability: about three-fourths of all the works examined belong to the last decade insofar as I can determine from publishing dates and critical sources; somewhat less than three-fourths of all the authors whose works were read wrote mainly in the post World War II era, and half of the novel-length works used in the preparation of the paper were published before World War II. It is impossible to ascertain if these proportions accurately reflect the varying production of science fiction during this period, but it is probably true that much more sf was published in the last decade in Russia than in previous years. What are the themes with which the authors of science fiction are occupied? Have they changed since the 'twenties? How closely does science fiction resemble the rest of Soviet literature? Has it become, as American science fiction after World War II became, a vehicle for social criticism? It is a rapidly growing body of literature that has just recently begun to attract serious consideration of its literary merits. It has a small but devoted audience. I intend to explain what this audience reads and evaluate the genre objectively and critically. / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation contains two parts: Part I, which discusses the elegy of possessive intent, a subgenre of the contemporary American elegy; and Part II, Antigravity, a collection of poems. English elegies have been closely rooted to a specific grief, making the poems closer to occasional poems. The poet—or at least the poet’s speaker—seeks some kind of public consolation for (often) a private loss. The Americanized form does stray from the traditional elegy yet retains some of its characteristics. Some American elegies memorialize failed romantic relationships rather than the dead. In their memorials, these speakers seek a completion for the lack the broken relationship has created in the speakers’ lives. What they can’t replace, they substitute with something personal. As the contemporary poem becomes further removed from tradition, it’s no surprise that the elegy has evolved as well. Discussions of elegies have never ventured into the type of elegy that concerns itself with the sort of unacknowledged loss found in some contemporary American poems of unrequited love. These poems all have speakers who willfully refuse to acknowledge the loss of their love-objects and strive to maintain control/ownership of their beloveds even in the face of rejection.

This thesis examines three major works by the American Science Fiction and Fantasy writer Gene Wolfe (Eugene Rodman Wolfe, 1931-). The central argument of this thesis is that in The Fifth Head of Cerberus (1972), the 'New Sun' cycle of novels (1980- 1987), and Soldier of the Mist (1986), Wolfe presents the human desire for knowledge of the Self and of God and the near-impossibility of attaining this knowledge. Wolfe expresses obstacles to knowledge and fulfilment in his created fictional worlds, in the characters of his protagonists, and in the complicated narrative structures that distinguish all three texts. By converting the stable and reassuring world of conventional Science Fiction into a realm of uncertainty, ambiguity, and spiritual and cognitive confusion, Wolfe radically subverts the genre and exposes it to a new subtlety and flexibility.

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