Almagest

This paper will argue for science fiction as an extension of the epic tradition, modifying C.S. Lewis' conception of primary and secondary epic with Darko Suvin's notion of "cognitive estrangement". Science fiction wields estrangement in a related fashion to character-driven epic and thematic-driven epic, but it collapses the distinction between them in novel ways creating a "double estrangement function" in works of science fiction. Further, John Searle's "direction of fit" will be used to further illustrate this double estrangement. There are several advantages to seeing science fiction as a continuation of the epic tradition. It will upgrade the status of science fiction in literary studies, instead of relegating it to mere genre fiction.

The article examines the interaction of scientific ideas and literary works of Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French mathematician, physicist, writer and Christian philosopher. His mathematical ideas influenced his most famous theological work - the Pensées (Thoughts) which is considered to be a masterpiece and a landmark in French prose. In the Pensées, Pascal analyzes several philosophical paradoxes: infinity and nothing, faith and reason, soul and matter, death and life. In this article I shall start by looking at the geometrical origin of Pascal's most famous comparison of man with "a thinking reed". Then I will examine the connection between two different works: De l'Esprit géométrique and the Pensées. This analysis will bring me to the next point − the mathematical resolution of Pascal's Wager. Historically, Pascal's Wager, where the notion of expected value was introduced, was groundbreaking because it charted new territory in probability theory, marked the first formal use of decision theory, and anticipated future philosophies such as existentialism. Finally, the article presents two mathematical poems from the Pascal's treatises. In the conclusion, it is said that Pascal in his geometrical works explains as a philosopher and in his Thoughts demonstrates as a mathematician, using probability and expectation in mathematical calculation and in existentialist explanation.

The topic of this paper is the impact of literary texts and literary strategies on Johann Georg Zimmermann's biography of the renowned Swiss scientist Albrecht von Haller (1755). I argue in this paper that Zimmermann's use of intertextual literary references contributes to specific writing strategies Zimmermann uses for this biography. Zimmermann, on the one hand, maintains to deal with facts only, which are proven by the same scientific methods Haller uses in his research. In proposing a new kind of biographical writing, Zimmermann claims that he intends to follow nature since nature guarantees truth. On the other hand, Zimmermann's book cannot deny that it responds to the specific situation Haller had found himself in in the 1750's. The internationally renowned scientist Haller had returned to Berne in 1753 in a subordinate position, and soon thereafter Zimmermann published Haller's biography, attempting to establish a new interpretation of his life. The use of fictional aspects such as the central quote from Samuel Richardson's Clarissa which is used as a motto aims at the fictional level which selects and interprets facts through specific writing strategies.

Even earlier than C.P. Snow's thesis of the "two cultures", Max Weber argued in 1917 that scientists are responsible for "the disenchantment of the world". At first glance, this seems to be evidenced by the science-friendly belles-lettres and literary texts of the 19^th century. They focus on various scientists, experimenters, and traveling explorers who displace and "overcome" fictitious characters of magicians, necromancers, and magnetizers in literary texts. Moreover, literary programs (Emile Zola, Wilhelm Bölsche) and the "social" dramas of Naturalism fostered a scientific-like tendency of literature.

According to Weber's and Snow's thesis of an antagonism between the natural scientists and literary intellectuals from the humanities, one might assume a rivalry between scientists and magicians in fiction, too. But this paper analyzes novels by Gottfried Keller and Paul Heyse exemplarily in order to show particular literary strategies which undermine this antagonism.

Gulliver's Travels' translation fortunes have long ago been investigated in most European countries but this is not the case with Greece. In the present paper we shall follow the reception of this eminent early 18^th century literary work in 19^th century Greece. Its course started in the 1850's in magazines addressing an adult reading public without success, and continued in a book form. The result was an abridged version mainly for the use of children but also for women and working class men in 1858, and a "mutated" publication of the fourth part of the book at the end of the 1880's, addressing this time a highbrow readership. As we shall see both transformations of the novel owe a lot to different European trends of the period.

Despite its reputation, Jules Verne's novel is not so clear about relationship between Literature and Science. First, even if Hetzel leads the author to a didactic form, novels show faulty knowledges, problems of readability, pessimism against progress. Verne seems to play a double game, using science warrants and behaviour skills to build a new type of narrative ethos, different from the realistic model. In order to make his stories more attractive, Verne manipulates the reader to modify his feeling of the unbelievable. Instead of transmitting established knowledges, he likes to explore science blancks and frontiers : adventures of sciences take place in the "field of hypothesis". Finally, science seems to be, for him, the best way to renew novel empowerment.

Two books by French writer Jules Verne are among the most famous science fiction writings of the 19^th century. These are From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and the sequel Around the Moon (1870).

These books became famous not only because of the originality of their plot and the appeal that a journey within space has always had on mankind but also because of the plethora of Verne's references on scientific matters that people of that era found fascinating. Indeed, the two books are full of references on physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy and selenography issues plus some interesting illustrations like the one in Fig. 1.

The current study focuses on the sequel and more specifically on the excerpts where the writer contradicts the common grounds of scientific knowledge of the time or even contradicts himself from one extract to the other.

Jule Verne was not just a brilliant novelist but also a man whose ideological and political beliefs could inspire the youth of his time. It is interesting though that the researchers of his work have expressed rather contradicting views on this matter. In this paper we attempt to describe some ideological positions which probably express the relevant ideas supported by Verne himself and which are present in some of his books and especially the L' ile a Helice, which is a book not so popular as many others.

Jules Verne was an extremely prolific author, with over 100 books to his name, 54 of which form part of the famous Voyages Extraordirnaires (Extraordinary Journeys) series and the second-most-translated author after Agatha Christie.

In contrast perhaps to the popular impression, the basic feature of these books (Extraordinary Journeys) as of Verne's other works, is not science fiction but human characters and the evolution of society. The science-fiction element is used to place people in situations unprecedented in his era, which is what gave the great author such wide recognition.

Like most people, I first met Jules Verne at my childhood, through the Greek translations published by "Asteras" in the 1960s and '70s and I was fascinated by the adventure of the stories. Second time I met Verne was at my adulthood, writing this paper. The time that has passed shifts my interest from the adventure of the story to the human situations, clearly highlighting the literary value of these works and the poetry that distinguishes them.

In this presentation, we shall examine the way that Verne uses Mathematics and Astronomy which come unavoidably to the forefront in a lot of his novels, since it is obvious that the technology and the plot of adventure in Verne's works need science. The natural sciences predominate: Physics and Chemistry, Physiology, Geography above all, Geology, Palaeontology, Astronomy and of course Mathematics.