Imagining Outer Space
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Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century

Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century


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About the Book

Imagining Outer Space makes a captivating advance into the cultural history of outer space and extraterrestrial life in the European imagination. How was outer space conceived and communicated? What promises of interplanetary expansion and cosmic colonization propelled the project of human spaceflight to the forefront of twentieth-century modernity? In what way has West-European astroculture been affected by the continuous exploration of outer space? Tracing the current thriving interest in spatiality to early attempts at exploring imaginary worlds beyond our own, the book's authors analyze contact points between science and fiction from a transdisciplinary perspective and examine sites and situations where utopian images and futuristic technologies contributed to the omnipresence of fantasmatic thought. Bringing together state-of-the-art work in this emerging field of historical research, the volume breaks new ground in the historicization of the Space Age.

Table of Contents:
Figures Abbreviations Acknowledgments Contributors Introduction European Astrofuturism, Cosmic Provincialism Historicizing the Space Age; A.C.T.Geppert PART I: NARRATING OUTER SPACE Space, Time and Aliens:The Role of Imagination in Outer Space; S.J.Dick Heaven on Earth: Tunguska, 30 June 1908; C.Schmolders Imagining Inorganic Life: Crystalline Aliens in Science and Fiction; T.Brandstetter PART II: PROJECTING OUTER SPACE Projecting Landscapes of the Human Mind onto Another World: Changing Faces of an Imaginary Mars; R.Eisfeld 'Smash the Myth of the Fascist Rocket Baron': East German Attacks on Wernher von Braun in the 1960s; M.J.Neufeld Transcendence of Gravity: Arthur C. Clarke and the Apocalypse of Weightlessness: T.Bjornvig PART III: VISUALIZING OUTER SPACE Per Media Ad Astra?: Outer Space in West Germany's Media, 1957-87; B.Mutter Balloons on the Moon: Visions of Space Travel in Francophone Comic Strips; G.de Syon 'A Stumble in the Dark': Contextualizing Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Space: 1999; H.Keazor PART IV: ENCOUNTERING OUTER SPACE Life as We Don't Yet Know It: An Anthropologist's First Contact with the Science of 'Weird Life'; D.Battaglia A Ghost in the Machine: How Sociology Tried to Explain (Away) American Flying Saucers and European Ghost Rockets, 1946-47; P.Lagrange Seeing the Future of Civilization in the Skies of Quarouble: UFO Encounters and the Problem of Empire in Postwar France; J.Miller PART V: INSCRIBING OUTER SPACE Self-Reproducing Automata and the Impossibility of SETI; G.Munevar Inscribing Scientific Knowledge: Interstellar Communication, NASA's Pioneer Plaque, and Contact with Cultures of the Imagination, 1971-72; W.R.Macauley Alien Spotting: Damien Hirst's Beagle 2, Mars Lander'S Calibration Target and the Exploitation of Outer Space; T.Weddigen Epilogue Look Up: Art in the Age of Orbitization; P.Pocock Bibliography Index

About the Author :
ALEXANDER C. T. GEPPERT directs the Emmy Noether Research Group 'The Future in the Stars: European Astroculture and Extraterrestrial Life in the Twentieth Century' at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany. Recent book publications include Fleeting Cities: Imperial Expositions in Fin-de-siecle Europe (2010) and Wunder: Poetik and Politik des Staunens im 20. Jahrhundert (2011).

Review :
'This wonderful multinational and multidisciplinary collection is greater than the sum of its fascinating parts. Crystalline aliens, a mysterious Siberian explosion, silicon-based life forms, Tintin, Thunderbirds, Star Trek and Raelians are just some of the many things which are examined in a brilliantly eclectic series of essays.' - David Edgerton, Imperial College London 'With generous references to the scholarship and original sources, as well as its own intelligent and well-integrated contributions, this book establishes a comprehensive new field of research - 'astroculture." - Michael G. Smith, Purdue University, USA 'Europe too has a history of imagining outer space, distinct from yet inextricably linked with global cultures of perceiving and experiencing the universe. This splendid volume offers a fascinating panorama of visions of the future. Anyone interested in the complex relationship between technology, space, and culture will garner much from this groundbreaking work.' - Helmuth Trischler, Deutsches Museum 'Imagining Outer Space...takes a step in the right direction by defining the concept of astroculture and offering some interesting examples of relevant research.' - The Space Review 'A rich field for cultural history... A beautiful book... However peripheral Europe's contributions to the Space Age may have been, nothing was spared in the imagination. The matter was of exemplary global interest, after all. It is the details that count here, and the contributions in this volume offer plenty: crystalline aliens and Mars scenarios, spaceflight in comic strips and ghost rockets (a European equivalent to flying saucers), UFOs in postwar France and well-intentioned offers of interstellar communication.' -Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 'Imagining Outer Space offers an interdisciplinary and transnational approach to the cultural and social history of the space age in Europe. While it offers fascinating insights into the European context, it is its redrawing of the disciplinary boundaries of space history that should be most applauded... Highly recommended.' - Anke Ortlepp, H-Soz-u-Kult


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Product Details
  • ISBN-13: 9780230361362
  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
  • Binding: Digital (delivered electronically)
  • Sub Title: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century
  • ISBN-10: 0230361366
  • Publisher Date: 07 Feb 2012
  • Language: English


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