We Modern People: Science Fiction and the Making of Russian Modernity (Early Classics Of Science Fiction) - Hardcover

Banerjee, Anindita

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0819573337 ISBN 13: 9780819573339

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 2013

Synopsis

Science fiction emerged in Russia considerably earlier than its English version and instantly became the hallmark of Russian modernity. We Modern People investigates why science fiction appeared here, on the margins of Europe, before the genre had even been named, and what it meant for people who lived under conditions that Leon Trotsky famously described as "combined and uneven development." Russian science fiction was embraced not only in literary circles and popular culture, but also by scientists, engineers, philosophers, and political visionaries. Anindita Banerjee explores the handful of well-known early practitioners, such as Briusov, Bogdanov, and Zamyatin, within a much larger continuum of new archival material comprised of journalism, scientific papers, popular science texts, advertisements, and independent manifestos on social transformation. In documenting the unusual relationship between Russian science fiction and Russian modernity, this book offers a new critical perspective on the relationship between science, technology, the fictional imagination, and the consciousness of being modern.

About this title

About the Author:

ANINDITA BANERJEE is an associate professor of comparative literature at Cornell University.

Review:

"We Modern People is not a romp through a well-ploughed field: on the contrary, it does the hard work of a path-breaking book ... It inspires us to consider the potential of today's literary genres to mediate between scientific advancement and the global cultures that must articulate the purpose of this advancement in constructing our collective future" -- Times Higher Education

Banerjee demonstrates how the techno-political and science-fictional imaginations are entwined in the modernization process. This book is an exemplary study in linking the popularization of science with modern literature."--Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., author of The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction

About this edition

• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0819573337
• ISBN 13: 9780819573339
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 230