Open AccessHow to Save Utopia? Aleksandr Beliaev’s tergiversations between science and entertainment
Author(s) -
Annick Morard
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
actographe
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2490-9459
DOI - 10.24249/2490-9459-4-1-7-27
Subject(s) - entertainment , utopia , context (archaeology) , meaning (existential) , aesthetics , sociology , literature , art , media studies , history , philosophy , art history , epistemology , visual arts , archaeology
How to Save Utopia? Aleksandr Beliaev’s tergiversations between science and entertainment Aleksandr Beliaev engaged a fruitful dialogue between several cultural fields, namely science, entertainment and fiction, and highlighted the imbrication of utopian discourses in the particular context of the implementation of the soviet project. He explored life sciences – that is to say, fields directly related to the human body, at least in five texts: Prof. Dowell’s Head (1925; 1937), Amphibian-Man (1928; 1938), Ariel (1941) and two lesser-known and less analysed short stories called Amba (1929) and its sequel Khoiti Toiti (1930). All these texts also have in common to engage a reflection on the cultural meaning of «extraordinary bodies» at the beginning of the 20th century. For this reason, this paper will focus on the triangulation between science, literature and entertainment; and assume that the world of entertainment constituted for Beliaev an escape hatch, a temporary way out, when he realized that science and scholars could no longer fulfill his own utopian ambitions.