Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century

by Alexander C.T. Geppert (Editor)

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.

Genres: Science Fiction, Space

424 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Mackenzie O’Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on Astroculture and how space affects our imagination and vice-versa. Very broad, from anthropological-historical arguments to chapters on Space Comics. I found this one a bit more philosophical-leaning than Geppert’s Limiting Outer Space in certain ways. Macqualey’s chapter on the Pioneer Plaque and Interstellar Messages and The chapter on Arthur C. Clarke were my favorites