New Books Network Ana I. Oancea, "Dangerous Creations: The Inventor Novel in Fin-de-siècle France" (U Toronto Press, 2025)
May 6, 2026
Ana Oancea, Associate Professor of French focused on science and literature, discusses inventor novels in fin-de-siècle France. She traces how Verne, Robida, Zola, and Villiers reshape the inventor figure. Conversations touch on science and colonialism, inventor versus official scientist, gender and technology, and transmedia echoes in films, TV, and games.
01:03:49
Inventor Science As Postmodern
- Oancea reads official science as modern (Lyotard) and inventor science as postmodern, because inventors rely on paralogy and challenge established norms.
- Inventors are polymaths who exploit cracks in specialization to produce radical results.
Tesla As Popular Inventor Archetype
- The Tesla myth functions as a ready-made inventor archetype in popular culture: marginalized genius opposed to establishment figures like Edison.
- Examples include The Prestige, The Five Fists of Science, and Jean Echenoz's Lightning.
Robida's Dystopian Future
- Albert Robida's Le XXe siècle satirizes Verne by showing a Vernian future turned dystopian: technological efficiency erases culture and individuality.
- The trilogy culminates with celebrity inventors who commodify technology and control society.
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Intro
00:00 • 2min
Origins of the Project
02:01 • 39sec
Corpus Formation and Structure
02:40 • 1min
Verne, Machines, and Public Science
03:54 • 3min
Science, Exploration, and Colonialism
06:38 • 9min
Vernian Science in Contemporary Fiction
16:00 • 3min
Inventor vs Official Scientist
19:13 • 4min
Ad break
23:34 • 1min
Inventors as Postmodern Figures
24:52 • 5min
Robida's XXe Siècle Trilogy
30:00 • 4min
Literature, Condensation, and Zola
34:01 • 5min
Women, Technology, and Emancipation
38:40 • 6min
Ad break
44:45 • 2min
Zola's Reinvention of the Inventor
46:44 • 6min
Zola and Westworld: Labor Parallels
52:51 • 3min
Villiers's Edison and Fictional Legend
56:04 • 5min
Androids and Human Exceptionalism
01:01:04 • 3min
Future Projects and Translation
01:04:32 • 1min
Outro
01:05:51 • 42sec
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La Guerre au XXe siècle
Albert Robida
Albert Robida's 'La Guerre au XXe siècle' imagines future warfare transformed by automation, explosives, and mechanized systems, satirically critiquing the dehumanizing effects of technology on conflict.
The volume extends Robida's dystopian vision of a technicized society, exploring how war becomes impersonal, efficient, and devastating when driven by inventions and mass-produced machines.
Robida's background as a caricaturist informs the book's illustrative strategies, making it a proto-graphic-novel exploration of future war aesthetics and propaganda.
The text offers insight into late-19th-century cultural anxieties about military modernization and the political power of inventors and technocrats.
Its translation and critical edition help illuminate Robida's influence on future-war fiction and visual storytelling techniques.
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Facing the Flag
Jules Gabriel Verne
In 'Facing the Flag' ('Face au drapeau'), Jules Verne presents a brilliant inventor who devises a terrifying weapon, leading to fears about technological power, patriotism, and stateless threats.
The novel dramatizes tensions between national duty and individual genius, as characters confront the risks of knowledge falling into hostile hands and the moral responsibilities of scientists.
Verne uses the plot to critique unchecked inventiveness while reinforcing the value of official, patriotic scientific stewardship.
The story reflects late-19th-century anxieties about modern warfare, secret technologies, and the geopolitical implications of scientific discoveries.
It stands as a cautionary tale questioning who should control powerful technologies.
#168
• Mentioned in 137 episodes
The Martian
Andy Weir
R.C. Bray
The Martian tells the story of astronaut Mark Watney, who is presumed dead and left stranded on Mars after a fierce storm.
With limited supplies, Watney must draw upon his ingenuity, wit, and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.
Meanwhile, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring 'the Martian' home, while Watney faces numerous challenges in his quest for survival.
The novel is praised for its blend of science, humor, and suspense.
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L'Ève future
Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam
The novel begins with Thomas Edison contemplating his inventions and their impact on the world.
He is approached by Lord Ewald, who is frustrated with his fiancée, Miss Alicia Clary, due to her physical perfection but emotional and intellectual emptiness.
Edison offers to create an android, Hadaly, in the form of Alicia but without her flaws.
The novel delves into the construction of this android, raising philosophical questions about the nature of humanity and the role of science in creating artificial life.
It is characterized by its detailed scientific explanations and its exploration of themes such as love, identity, and the limitations of human understanding.
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Robur-Le-Conquérant
Le Le Plume
Jules Verne
#
Dangerous Creations
The Inventor Novel in Fin-de-siècle France
Ana Oancea
Ana I. Oancea's 'Dangerous Creations' traces a master narrative of the inventor in fin-de-siècle French novels, examining how figures by Jules Verne, Albert Robida, Émile Zola, and Villiers de l'Isle-Adam reimagine scientific creativity, national identity, and gender.
The book argues these narratives present the inventor as a flawed, universally male exemplar whose private, transgressive science both threatens and illuminates the nation during the Age of Empire.
Oancea situates these works within their literary currents—early science fiction, naturalism, and decadence—showing how each genre redeploys the inventor figure to probe ethics, intellectual property, and colonial ambitions.
She also includes transmedia vignettes linking the fin-de-siècle inventor novel to contemporary films, TV, graphic narratives, and video games that reinterpret its politics and power structures.
The study foregrounds the inventor's ongoing cultural legacy and its implications for race, gender, and technological imaginaries.
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Les 500 Millions de la Begum
Jules Verne
#67975
Le Futur
Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam
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Le XXe siècle
Aurélien Bellanger
Le XXe siècle d'Aurélien Bellanger est un roman qui met en scène des figures et des idées marquantes du siècle dernier, prenant Walter Benjamin comme figure tutélaire et point d'appui pour une réflexion sur la modernité.
L'auteur mêle narration et érudition, explorant les mutations culturelles, politiques et technologiques qui ont façonné le siècle.
Le livre s'inscrit dans la veine de Bellanger qui interroge les rapports entre littérature, histoire et médias.
Par son approche, il cherche à rendre sensibles les continuités et ruptures historiques à travers des personnages et des épisodes signifiants.
L'ouvrage a été publié en 2023 et a reçu une attention critique pour son ambition historique et son style érudit.
#83025
Le travail
Bertrand Martineau
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Des éclairs
Jean Echenoz
Jean Echenoz's 'Des éclairs' ('Lightning') is a fictional biography of Nikola Tesla that reimagines the inventor's life through a concise, stylish narrative emphasizing his eccentric genius and visionary experiments.
Echenoz blends archival detail with fiction to probe the myth-making around technological pioneers and the interplay between personality and invention.
The book highlights Tesla's marginalization and the cultural narratives that recast him as a heroic outsider in contrast to establishment figures.
Echenoz's prose captures both the glamour and melancholy of scientific celebrity, offering a reflective meditation on creativity, ambition, and the costs of innovation.
The novel contributes to contemporary cultural retellings of Tesla as an avatar of the solitary, transgressive inventor.
#13890
• Mentioned in 4 episodes
The Prestige
Christopher Priest
The Prestige is a science fiction novel that tells the story of a bitter and deadly rivalry between two stage magicians, Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier, in late 19th-century England.
The narrative is structured through a series of diaries and journals kept by the protagonists and their descendants.
The feud begins after a tragic incident during a séance and escalates into a cycle of revenge and obsession, with each magician attempting to outdo the other through increasingly complex and dangerous illusions.
The novel explores themes of obsession, deception, and the moral consequences of their actions, culminating in a dramatic revelation that ties together the past and present narratives.
#62719
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Jules Verne
Publié en 1870, *Vingt mille lieues sous les mers* est un classique de la littérature mondiale.
L'histoire suit le professeur Pierre Aronnax, son serviteur Conseil, et le harponneur canadien Ned Land, qui sont capturés par le capitaine Nemo après avoir découvert son sous-marin, le Nautilus.
Le roman explore les merveilles sous-marines et les aventures de ses personnages tout en révélant la complexité du personnage de Nemo.
#22093
• Mentioned in 3 episodes
La Bête Humaine
Émile Zola
Dans "La Bête humaine", Émile Zola explore les profondeurs de la nature humaine à travers le personnage de Jacques Lantier, un cheminot rongé par des pulsions meurtrières.
Le roman dépeint un monde où la modernité du chemin de fer contraste avec les instincts primitifs qui sommeillent en l'homme.
Zola analyse les forces héréditaires et sociales qui influencent le comportement de ses personnages, les entraînant vers un destin tragique.
L'œuvre est une étude poignante de la violence, de la passion et de la fatalité, ancrée dans le réalisme cru et la description minutieuse du monde ouvrier.
#6712
• Mentioned in 8 episodes
Germinal
Émile Zola
Germinal est un roman de Émile Zola, publié en 1885, qui décrit la vie des mineurs dans une petite ville minière du nord de la France.
Le roman suit Étienne Lantier, un jeune ouvrier idéaliste qui devient le leader d'une grève des mineurs.
Zola utilise ce roman pour critiquer les conditions de travail inhumaines et la pauvreté extrême des mineurs, tout en évoquant l'espoir d'un avenir meilleur.
Le titre *Germinal* fait référence au mois du calendrier républicain français, symbolisant la germination et le renouveau.
Dangerous Creations: The Inventor Novel in Fin-de-siècle France (U Toronto Press, 2025) presents a master narrative of the inventor in fin-de-siècle French literature by analyzing the works of Jules Verne, Albert Robida, Émile Zola, and Villiers de l’Isle-Adam. Their writings challenge the role of science in shaping French national identity and aim to transform contemporary understandings of science and technology. The book reveals how Verne, Robida, Zola, and de l’Isle-Adam reimagine the figure of the inventor, reshaping the literary standards of their time. Universally male in these narratives, the inventor serves as a flawed exemplar of national heroism during the Age of Empire – a period marked by significant external threats and internal strife – while also embodying unrestrained creativity. Ultimately, the inventor novel reflects broader French anxieties surrounding scientific progress, empire, and gender. Ana Oancea explores the transmedia and transnational legacy of the fin-de-siècle inventor novel through vignettes that highlight similarly themed narratives in contemporary popular culture. These sections engage with films, television series, graphic narratives, and video games that reinterpret key aspects of the inventor narrative, shedding light on its power structures, racial and gender politics, and colonial aspirations.
Guest Ana Oancea is Associate Professor of French at the University of Delaware. Her research interests include the intersections of science and literature, adaptation studies, and visual culture. She has recently published articles in Forum for Modern Language Studies, Science Fiction Film and Television, and French Screen Studies.
Host Gina Stamm is Associate Professor of French at The University of Alabama, with research concentrated on the environmental humanities and speculative literatures of the 20th and 21st centuries, from Surrealism to contemporary science fiction and feminist utopias, in Metropolitan France and the francophone Caribbean, with a book manuscript in progresson posthumanist ecological engagement in the surrealist movement.
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