“Renewed in health”: Meeting Giordano Bruno on planet Mars

Alessandra Calanchi

doi:10.13125/2039-6597/5444

Alessandra Calanchi Università degli Studi di Urbino

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/5444

Abstract

Journeys to the Planet Mars (1903) e Decimon Huydas: A Romance of Mars (1906) della scrittrice americana Sara Weiss (1834?-1904) fanno parte delle grandi utopie collocabili tra la fine del XIX secolo e l'Età d'Oro della Fantascienza. Scritti più o meno negli stessi anni in cui l'astronomo Percival Lowell pubblicava i suoi volumi dedicati al pianeta Marte, questi romances riflettono un'era in bilico fra spiritismo e razionalità, mondo patriarcale ed emancipazione femminile. Il viaggio verso il Pianeta Rosso è effettuato mediante l'energia psichica, e il luogo d'arrivo rivela sorprendenti affinità con la Terra. Accanto alla religione, le scienze giocano un ruolo fondamentale. Tutti gli spiriti che si incontrano su Marte sono stati un tempo scienziati o filosofi, e fra loro spicca Giordano Bruno, grande pensatore e difensore della libertà di pensiero e di parola. Esprimendo implicitamente le sue preoccupazioni rigardo al tradimento del Sogno Americano nell'epoca che vede la fine della Frontiera, Weiss sembra ricordare ai lettori di oggi le loro responsabilità per quanto riguarda i diritti civili e le politiche migratorie nell'epoca della Frontiera marziana.

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