Through the Daemon's Gate: Kepler's Somnium, Medieval Dream Narratives, and the

Description: Through the Daemon's Gate by Dean Swinford Tells the story of Johannes Keplers "Somnium", a narrative referred to as the first science-fiction story. This title explores the generic qualities of the fabulous narrative as well as the dream categories formulated by Macrobius and Artemidorus. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description This book tells the story of the early modern astronomer Johannes Keplers 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 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. Swinfords looks at the ways that Keplers 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. Swinford develops a key claim about the form of the 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 individuals dream and the order of the cosmos understood within the rules of the genre itself. To that end, Keplers Somnium is the first example of science fiction, but the last example of Neoplatonic allegory. Author Biography Dean Swinford is an Assistant Professor of English at Fayetteville State University. He is interested in the narrative practices employed in early scientific texts, particularly as these practices highlight the connections between religious mysticism and scientific reasoning. He has examined the historical contextualization of allegorical signification in authors ranging from Kepler to Kafka. His publications have appeared in Neophilologus, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, and Revue dHistoire des Sciences. Table of Contents Series Editors Foreword Acknowledgments 1: Polysemy and Allegorical Signification 2: Allegory and Movement 3: Language and its Limits as a Celestial Vehicle 4: The Process of Stellification 5: John of Salisburys Critique of the Dream Book 6: The Journey, the Book, and the Dream: An Overview of the Somnium 7: The Poetic Structure of the Circle 8: Keplers Allegories: The Somnium is not a Somnium 9: The Speech of Daemons Details ISBN0415886074 Author Dean Swinford Year 2010 ISBN-10 0415886074 ISBN-13 9780415886079 Media Book Format Paperback Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd Imprint Routledge Subtitle Keplers Somnium, Medieval Dream Narratives, and the Polysemy of Allegorical Motifs Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom Pages 240 DEWEY 829.09 Affiliation University of North Florida, USA Short Title Through the Daemons Gate Language English Series Studies in Medieval History and Culture AU Release Date 2010-10-28 NZ Release Date 2010-10-28 UK Release Date 2010-10-28 Publication Date 2010-10-28 Alternative 9780415977647 Audience Tertiary & Higher Education We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:134854599;

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