SCIENCE FICTION AND NON-SCIENCE FICTION: CREATIVE EXPERIMENTS OF THE ARTISTS OF XIX CENTURY

The attention is focused on the history of science fiction of the XIX century. The ground on which the Russian science fiction is based on, parallels between it are drawn mythology and literary fairy-tale are described. Also the connections between unscientific fantasy and certain romantic traditions on base of some most well-known works written in this genre are analyzed. Science fiction performs much more functions than just entertainment or popularization of scientific knowledge. Literary works written in this genre, touch upon fundamental scientific and philosophical problems, help us to weigh up facts of reality, taking into consideration modern picture of the world. Method of fictious assumption, used by the different writers, makes possible viewing the world from a new perspective. In connection with that, the development of science fiction from the XIX century up to nowadays, seems especially interesting and important. The attention is focused on the period, when Russian science fiction was just born, analyzing such well-known literary works as “A Cosmorama” and “Opere del Cavaliere Giambattista Piranesi “by V.F. Odoevsky, “Opal” by I.V. Kireevsky, “Walter Eisenberg” by K.S. Aksakov, which demonstrate the influence of the most typical tendencies of literature in the XIX century.

science fiction, mythology, literary fairy-tale, romanticism, mysticism, the world of forms (ideas)