Genre, science, and ‘Hans Pfaall'
Files
First author draft
Date
2019-02
Authors
Lee, Maurice
Version
First author draft
Embargo Date
2021-02-28
OA Version
Citation
Lee, Maurice S. “Genre, Science, and ‘Hans Pfaall.’” The Oxford Handbook of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by J. Gerald Kennedy and Scott Peeples, Oxford University Press, 5 Apr. 2018, pp. 337–350. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190641870.013.20
Abstract
This essay moves beyond questions of source study and reception to show how “The
Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall” mixes genres of satire and realism. In doing so, Poe
not only participates in the early development of science fiction but also explores emerging
relationships between scientific and literary discourses during the nineteenth-century print
revolution, which made it difficult to distinguish between fictions and facts. “Hans Pfaall” selfconsciously dramatizes through stylistic turbulence how knowledge is generically produced
within unruly media ecologies and is thus epistemologically unstable. In this sense, the story—
not in spite but precisely because of its generic and aesthetic inconsistencies—can be regarded
less as an unsuccessful hoax and more as a narrative about the dynamics of writing and reading
fiction under conditions of doubt.