REFRAMING THE HERITAGE OF JULES VERNE IN JÓKAI’S NOVEL: A JÖVŐ SZÁZAD REGÉNYE (THE NOVEL OF THE NEXT CENTURY)

Abstract

The paper aims to explore the connections between the most influential trends in 19th century’s world literature: the Sci-Fi written by Jules Verne, and its unique hybridization and recycling in one of Jókai Mór’s most monumental novels. 

Jókai's Sci-Fi combines and hybridizes many of the separately existing paradigms of the genre, such as defined in the world and Hungarian literature, in a rather unique way, while at the same time attempts new poetic and worldview solutions, that are characteristic, even in comparison to the contemporary world literary trends. In my research, I interpret this hybridization along three prominent sub-problems, with a special focus on the way Jókai uses the motif of the giant machine, the archetype of the scholar/scientist, respectively the nationalization/ethnicization of technical inventions.