Through The Daemon's Gate: Kepler's Somnium, Medieval Dream Narratives, And The Polysemy Of Allegorical Motifs (studies In Medieval History And Culture)
by Dean Swinford /
2006 / English / PDF
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This book tells the story of the early modern astronomer Johannes
Kepler’s Somnium, which has been regarded by science historians
and literary critics alike as the first true example of science
fiction. Kepler began writing his complex and heavily-footnoted
tale of a fictional Icelandic astronomer as an undergraduate and
added to it throughout his life. The
This book tells the story of the early modern astronomer Johannes
Kepler’s Somnium, which has been regarded by science historians
and literary critics alike as the first true example of science
fiction. Kepler began writing his complex and heavily-footnoted
tale of a fictional Icelandic astronomer as an undergraduate and
added to it throughout his life. TheSomnium
Somnium fuses
supernatural and scientific models of the cosmos through a
satirical defense of Copernicanism that features witches, lunar
inhabitants, and a daemon who speaks in the empirical language of
modern science. Swinford’s looks at the ways that Kepler’s
fuses
supernatural and scientific models of the cosmos through a
satirical defense of Copernicanism that features witches, lunar
inhabitants, and a daemon who speaks in the empirical language of
modern science. Swinford’s looks at the ways that Kepler’sSomnium
Somnium is influenced by the cosmic dream, a literary
genre that enjoyed considerable popularity among medieval
authors, including Geoffrey Chaucer, Dante, John of Salisbury,
Macrobius, and Alan of Lille. He examines the generic conventions
of the cosmic dream, also studying the poetic and theological
sensibilities underlying the categories of dreams formulated by
Macrobius and Artemidorus that were widely used to interpret
specific symbols in dreams and to assess their overall
reliability.
is influenced by the cosmic dream, a literary
genre that enjoyed considerable popularity among medieval
authors, including Geoffrey Chaucer, Dante, John of Salisbury,
Macrobius, and Alan of Lille. He examines the generic conventions
of the cosmic dream, also studying the poetic and theological
sensibilities underlying the categories of dreams formulated by
Macrobius and Artemidorus that were widely used to interpret
specific symbols in dreams and to assess their overall
reliability.
Swinford develops a key claim about the form of the
Swinford develops a key claim about the form of theSomnium
Somnium as it relates to early science: Kepler relies on
a genre that is closely connected to a Ptolemaic, or
earth-centered, model of the cosmos as a way of explaining and
justifying a model of the cosmos that does not posit the same
connections between the individual and the divine that are so
important for the Ptolemaic model. In effect, Kepler uses the
cosmic dream to describe a universe that cannot lay claim to the
same correspondences between an individual’s dream and the order
of the cosmos understood within the rules of the genre itself. To
that end, Kepler’s
as it relates to early science: Kepler relies on
a genre that is closely connected to a Ptolemaic, or
earth-centered, model of the cosmos as a way of explaining and
justifying a model of the cosmos that does not posit the same
connections between the individual and the divine that are so
important for the Ptolemaic model. In effect, Kepler uses the
cosmic dream to describe a universe that cannot lay claim to the
same correspondences between an individual’s dream and the order
of the cosmos understood within the rules of the genre itself. To
that end, Kepler’sSomnium
Somnium is the first example of
science fiction, but the last example of Neoplatonic allegory.
is the first example of
science fiction, but the last example of Neoplatonic allegory.
