The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary

The summary of the selected article appears at the bottom of the page. In order to get back to the contents of the issue this article belongs to you have to access the link from the title. In order to see all the articles of the archive which have as author/co-author one of the authors mentioned below, you have to access the link from the author's name.

  
       
         
    STUDIA PHILOLOGIA - Issue no. 4 / 2012  
         
  Article:   ASTRAL DYSTOPIAS IN THE CLASSICAL AGE / ANTIUTOPIES ASTRALES SPIRITISTES À L’ÂGE CLASSIQUE.

Authors:  . 		 
       
         
  Abstract:  In classical literature, with the heliocentric revolution and the theory of the infinite universe, the planets of our solar system, and then the different stars of the sky ceased to be pure and fiery spiritual astral bodies and became material habitable worlds. The authors of utopian and extraordinary voyages began to explore the possibility of sending their characters outside our terrestrial known globe to other planets. One of the means for such journeys, beyond different human artifacts, was the out-of-body experiences, spiritual trances, which became fashionable with the spread of different classical spiritualists sects. Our paper argues that the planets explored were not always inhabited by ideal societies, as in classical utopias, but by nightmare, evil and sometimes monstrous populations, creating a unique species of classical dystopias.

Keywords: French and English classical literature; Utopias; Dystopias; Astral voyage; Margaret Cavendish; Voltaire; Marie-Anne de Roumier-Robert; Tiphaigne de la Roche. 		 
         
     
         
         
      Back to previous page