World-Building and the New Astronomy in Seventeenth-Century Prose Fictions of Cosmic Voyage

The book looks at ways of world-building in prose fictions of cosmic voyage in the seventeenth century. With the rise of the New Astronomy, there equally was a resurgence of the cosmic voyage in fiction. Various models of the universe were reimagined in prose form. Most of these voyages explore imagined versions of a world in the moon, such as the cosmic voyages by Johannes Kepler, Francis Godwin and Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac. In Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World, an eponymous imaginary planet is introduced. The book analyses the world-building of cosmic voyages by combining theories of world-building with contemporary concepts from early modern literature. It shows how imaginary worlds were created in early modern prose literature.

Evelyn Koch holds a PhD in English Literature from the University of Bayreuth and is currently working as a lecturer in British literature and culture at the Philipps University of Marburg. Her research interests include early modern and 19th-century literature, as well as fantasy and horror fiction.