Les pôles, territoires de l’imaginaire où science et fiction s’entremêlent

Abstract

The earth’s poles nourished the imagination for a long time. For the protestant utopians of the end of the XVIIth century as for the novelists of the XIXth century, the pole is a magic, enchanting place where the weather is fine. Sailor’s tales having seen the sea free of ice near the North pole are assumed to be true and are used by the most important scientists, unable to conceive that the sea may freeze. Science and fiction blend and reinforce mutually so the Arctic sea, free of ice becomes an irremovable reality, until Mary Shelley or Jules Verne. Hatteras will cross the ice barrier until the sea free of ice and will become mad. The ghost of the advance of ice, due to the climate cooling assumed by Buffon begins to be perceptible in the literature in the middle of the XIXth century.

Keywords

• terrestrial pole
• imaginary
• utopia
• ice
• sea