Les Novelettes astrales (1912) ou l’utopie subversive de Paul Scheerbart

Abstract

Paul Scheerbart (1863-1915) has certainly been passed over as a science-fiction author. Yet, this eccentric writer has created an outstanding fantasy mode in his Astrale Novelletten (Astral Short Stories, 1912) which appeared as a very special form of science fiction at the beginning of the 20th century. He personally distrusted the scientific optimism of his time and his short stories describe remote worlds and civilizations as utopian counterworlds where the human instincts of competition, aggressivity and domination do not exist. Paul Scheerbart associates science with a sense of wonder and his short stories stray far from the conventional variations of interstellar adventures that are typical of the well-known space opera. They rather conjure up pleasant scenes of a utopian peaceful way of life based on art and aesthetic contemplation. Thanks to their humorous sense of grotesque and derision, these narratives depict an attractive form of literary alterity.

Keywords

• Scheerbart (Paul)
• utopia
• subversion