The Evolution of Science Fiction Webinar Series: Module Six

The Mysteries & Romances of Science: The 19 Century from The Sandman and Poe to Jules Verne and Evolution

The Evolution of Science Fiction Webinar Series: Module Six

The Mysteries & Romances of Science: The Nineteenth Century from The Sandman and Poe to Jules Verne and Evolution

Lecturer: Thomas Lombardo, Ph.D., Center for Future Consciousness

This webinar covers the history of science fiction during the period of approximately 1820 to 1870. We begin with E.T.A. Hoffman’s superlatively frightening tale of madness, obsession, and love with a robot, The Sandman, and the first fully developed science fiction narrative of a future human society, Jane Loudon’s The Mummy! After examining “The Second Scientific Revolution,” which delved into the study of electricity and provoked a new wave of mysticism in Western culture, the writings of Edgar Allen Poe, combining the Gothic, horrific, and psychological with the mesmeric and scientific, are reviewed. Next, we look at the first tales of artificially created satellites, outer space settlements, and journeys into the microscopic realm. An in-depth discussion of Jules Verne’s numerous “extraordinary voyages” and prescient narratives on the future follows. The webinar concludes with an introduction to the significant impact the theory of evolution will have on the subsequent growth of science fiction.