Jules Verne

Although critics continue to debate whether Jules Verne's work is "true" science fiction (SF), rather than scientific romance, Verne is widely credited as one of the founders of the genre and in the popular imagination, he and SF are seen as largely synonomous. Verne has received renewed attention since the publication in 1994 of his "Paris au Vingtieme Siecle", and this has highlighted his importance as a key commentator on the anguishes of modernity.

Arthur B. Evans provides a detailed account of the relationship between Verne and the French literary canon, demonstrating the "now-ineluctable trend towards rehabilitation and literary canonization". Daniel Compere exmines narrative technique, versimilitude, defamiliarization, naturalization and dialogism in Verne's work, while Timothy Unwin develops the enquiry into the nature of the Vernian text in discussing the role of science and textual repetition. The interface between realism, utopianism and SF in a number of Verne's novels is investigated by Sarah Capitano.

CONTENTS:
Verne, SF and modernity - an introduction, Edmund J

Smyth
- Jules Verne and the French literary canon, Arthur B

Evans
- Jules Verne and the limitations of literature, Daniel Compere
- the fiction of science, or the science of fiction, Timothy Unwin
- "l'ici-bas" and "l'au-dela"





but not as they know it - realism, utopianism and science fiction in the novels of Jules Verne, Sarah Capitano
- a hitchhiker's guide to Paris - Paris au vingtieme siecle, David Platten
- future past - myth, inversion and regression in Verne's underground utopia, David Meakin
- measurement and mystery in Verne, Trevor Harris
- the science is fiction - Jules Verne, Raymond Roussel and surrealism, Terry Hale, Andrew Hugill
- mysterious masterpieces, William Butcher