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5 Science Fiction vs. Scientific Fiction in France: From Jules Verne to J.-H. Rosny Aîné (1988)
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[ 47 •3• German theories oF sCienCe FiCtion Jean Paul, Kurd Lasswitz, and After William B. FisCher The following article was one of the first English-language scholarly discussions of the early German writers and literary theorists Jean Paul and Kurd Lasswitz. Both authors had a very large influence on the development of German science fiction in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This essay originally appeared in SFS 3, no. 3 (November 1976): 254–64. Science fiction is a recent form of literature and an even newer topic of literary criticism. While many excellent interpretations have already been written , there is still no lack of unexamined material or unanswered questions. One of the most fundamental problems of sf criticism concerns the theory and definition of sf—its aesthetics or poetics. At least four major issues are involved: (1) the manner in which the content, methods, and outlook of science interact with the artistic temperament to produce the attitudes and themes of sf; (2) the nature of sf as a literary form; (3) the reciprocal interplay of author, text, and reader in the creation and reception of texts and in the evolution of a concept of genre; (4) the consideration of sf and sf criticism from literary traditions other than modern Anglo-American sf in the formulation of theories about the general nature of sf.1 One major body of sf and sf criticism that has been unduly neglected is the one produced by German writers. In this essay I will discuss early German theories of sf, with particular attention to two writers, Jean Paul Friedrich Richter (1763–1825) and Kurd Lasswitz (1848–1910), whose work spans a period of over a century. Both participated, as theoreticians and writers of fiction, in the development of German sf. Their ideas and those of other German sf critics deserve a place in the history of the genre and can also 48 ] William B. FisCher contribute much to the application of the concepts and methods of literary criticism to the study of sf. The prehistory of German sf can be traced at least as far back as the Renaissance and Kepler’s Somnium (ca. 1610, pbd. 1634). None of the few German utopias and imaginary voyages written during the next two centuries , however, are as well known or as important to the history of sf as those written in England, France, and Italy.2 It was only after the middle of the eighteenth century that science even began to become a significant part of German literature. The impact of the Scientific Revolution on worldview and poetic imagery can be detected in some lyric poetry, for example, the effusive cosmological poems of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803).3 Many critics have noted the importance of science for Goethe, who was an able student of many sciences, and for the German Romantics, some of whom had formal scientific training.4 The effect of modern cosmology and Newtonian physics on poetic consciousness is also apparent in several poems by Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843), such as “Keppler” (sic) and “Die scheinheiligen Dichter” (The Hypocritical Poets) both written shortly before 1800. None of these writers, however, can reasonably be considered authors of German sf, nor did they address themselves at any length to the philosophical and aesthetic questions raised by the interaction of science and literature. Even less did they—or for that matter most other German writers of the time—concern themselves in their fiction to any notable degree with technology, the social impact of the Industrial Revolution, or serious utopian thought. Here, as in industrialization and the development of a national state, Germany lagged behind Great Britain, France, and the United States. Perhaps the German literary community was too busy dealing with the issue of German nationalism or investigating the artistic implications of Faust or Wilhelm Meister to devote much thought to science, industrialization, or speculation about what society might be like after Germany finally became a nation. The contrast between German literature and British and American literature of this period, which was so important for the later development of Anglo-American sf, is readily apparent. At the end of the eighteenth century there did appear one major statement about science and literature by a German writer. It is to be found, curiously enough, among the several whimsical prefaces and stories that accompany the novel Leben des Quintus Fixlein (The Life of Quintus Fixlein, 1796) by Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, who is better known by his...