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Janžekovič reads Futuristic Fiction on History

Izidor Janžekovič
review of Futuristic Fiction, Utopia, and Satire in the Age of Enlightenment: Samuel Madden’s Memoirs of the Twentieth Century (1733). By Giulia Iannuzzi. Brepols, 2024. 460 pp. €125.

History: The Journal fo the Historical Association

March 2025

https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.70008

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-229X.70008

“In her meticulously researched new book, Giulia Ianuzzi does not just provide a new critical edition of Samuel Madden’s Memoirs of the Twentieth Century – an often-overlooked Enlightenment utopia – but also an insightful analysis of chronological aspects within the literature of the early modern era.”

Memoirs of the Twentieth Century was one of the earliest examples of what could be considered an uchronia, as the narrative does not simply project a utopian vision into a geographically distant place, usually on an island, as is common in traditional utopian literature, but rather creates an alternative version of future.”

“Iannuzzi’s thorough research and nuanced analysis bring out the richness of Madden’s text in ways that reveal its profound contributions to the development of speculative fiction. By carefully examining the historical, intellectual and literary contexts that shaped Madden’s writing, Iannuzzi makes a compelling case for why Memoirs deserves more attention from both scholars of the Enlightenment and those interested in the origins of futuristic and utopian fiction.”

Waging Future Wars

The Reign of George VI, Imagined Conflicts and the Birth of a Global Consciousness in the European Mind

This is to announce a new essay, focusing on The Reign of George VI, a XVIII-century speculative fiction.

This research aims at fostering a better understanding of how future wars were imagined in European literature, against the backdrop, on the one hand, of the cultural history of time and, on the other, within the context of the crisis of the European temporal mind during the eighteenth century.[1] It does this by analysing a fascinating early futuristic fiction, The Reign of George VI. 1900–1925: A Forecast Written in the Year 1763, which displayed a very specific interest in (future) military history and polemological strategy. [2]The Reign of George VI is here interpreted within a long history of imagined warfare and placed within a cultural context shaped by eighteenth-century European armed conflicts. Published anonymously in London in 1763 (or possibly at the beginning of 1764), this proto-novel offers a fascinating spatio-temporal representation of a future war at the crossroads of British national and imperial construction, European tensions, and power relations increasingly global in their scope.[3] These elements make it a significant chapter in the development of a secularised futuristic imagination, and an eloquent testament to the Seven Years War as a catalyst of cultural change.

Continue reading “Waging Future Wars”

Credulity in the Age of Reason / La crédulité à l’Âge de la Raison

I am delighted to announce the publication of Credulity in the Age of Reason / La crédulité à l’Âge de la Raison : Rhetoric, Epistemologies, Education / Rhétorique, épistémologies, éducation

Sous la direction de Giulia Iannuzzi, Claudia Lora Márquez, Sylvie Moret Petrini et Brianna E. Robertson-Kirkland

402 pp.

EAN 9782745361738. 58 €

Credulity in the Age of Reason interrogates the tension between credulity and reason throughout the 18th century as ultimately a problem of power and knowledge. The authors consider texts intended for the instruction of young people as well as the education of the wider public to explore the negotiation of what constituted authority in the construction of philosophical, political, economic, and trans-cultural knowledge.

Stemming from the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Early Career Researchers seminar hosted by the University of Michigan in June 2021, Credulity in the Age of Reason shows how the problem of credulity, and the closely related issues of authority and credibility, permeated European society and culture in the Age of Enlightenment.

La crédulité à l’Âge de la Raison questionne les tensions entre crédulité et raison au XVIIIe siècle et réfléchit aux enjeux de pouvoir et de connaissance qu’elles sous-tendent. Les auteurs analysent des textes destinés à l’instruction des jeunes personnes ainsi qu’à l’éducation du grand public afin d’explorer la négociation de ce qui constituait l’autorité dans la construction des savoirs philosophique, politique, économique et transculturel.

Issu du Séminaire pour les Jeunes Chercheurs et Chercheuses organisé par la Société Internationale d’Étude du XVIIIesiècle à l’Université du Michigan en juin 2021, La crédulité à l’Âge de la Raison montre comment le problème de la crédulité, et les questions étroitement liées de l’autorité et de la crédibilité s’inscrivaient dans la société et la culture européennes à l’époque des Lumières.

L’ouvrage rassemble les contributions de Matilda Amundsen Bergström, Mrinmoyee Bhattacharya, Ciaran Harty, Giulia Iannuzzi, Noelia López-Souto, Claudia Lora Márquez, Sylvie Moret Petrini, Chanelle Reinhardt, Brianna E. Robertson-Kirkland, Shun Sugino, Thiago Vargas et Devin Vartija.

On Champion’s website: LINK

Flyer:

ToC:

English intro:

French intro:

Futuristic Fiction, Utopia, and Satire in the Age of the Enlightenment

Samuel Madden’s ‘Memoirs of the Twentieth Century’ (1733) – Brepols

Memoirs of the Twentieth Century (1733) is a fascinating piece of early eighteenth-century literature and an important chapter in the history of futuristic imagination and of an increasing global interconnectedness. Featuring an essay that contextualises the novel and an annotated edition of the text, this study explores issues central to the Enlightenment project: the negotiation of what falls within the limits of credibility, the existence of irrational beliefs in The Age of Reason, and issues of control over the circulation of knowledge.

Continue reading “Futuristic Fiction, Utopia, and Satire in the Age of the Enlightenment”

The Seductions of Superstitions

The Case of Duncan Campbell in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century England

W. Bond, The Supernatural Philosopher: Or, the Mysteries of Magick, in All Its Branches, Clearly Unfolded [...] All Exemplified in the History of the Life and surprizing Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, a Scots Gentleman; who, though Deaf and Dumb, Writes down Any Stranger’s Name at first Sight, with their Future Contingencies of Fortune [...], London, Printed for E. Curll [...], 1728., chapter The Method of Teaching Deaf and Dumb
Persons to Write, Read, and Understand a Language, text ref. al "an alphabet upon the fingers", plate following p. 38
W. Bond, The Supernatural Philosopher: Or, the Mysteries of Magick, in All Its Branches, Clearly Unfolded […] All Exemplified in the History of the Life and surprizing Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, a Scots Gentleman; who, though Deaf and Dumb, Writes down Any Stranger’s Name at first Sight, with their Future Contingencies of Fortune […], London, Printed for E. Curll […], 1728., chapter The Method of Teaching Deaf and Dumb Persons to Write, Read, and Understand a Language, text ref. “an alphabet upon the fingers”, plate following p. 38

Here’s to advertise a new article, just published on Studi Storici, investigating the future as an epistemological arena in a hitherto understudied work from the early eighteenth century, The Supernatural Philosopher. First printed for Edmund Curll in 1720 under an alternative title, then expanded in 1728, the text focuses on Duncan Campbell (c. 1680-1730), a deaf and mute soothsayer who was a popular attraction in London during the 1720s.

The proclaimed ability to see the future makes Campbell’s case a vantage point to observe the negotiation of credibility and credulity in the Age of Reason. This article thematizes the connection between Campbell’s preternatural faculties, his claimed Scottish and Sami origins, and the relationship established by The Supernatural Philosopher with a number of literary sources and with a female public.

Giulia Iannuzzi, Le seduzioni della superstizione. Il caso di Duncan Campbell in Inghilterra tra Sei e Settecento / The Seductions of Superstitions. The Case of Duncan Campbell in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century England, Studi storici, 3/2023, pp. 651-689, doi: 10.7375/108367; url: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.7375/108367.

Find the article on the journal website, or contact me for a copy for research purposes at giannuzzi <at> units.it

Find on this blog a post on this case study including digital visualisations: Giulia Iannuzzi, “Credulity, Curiosity, and Credibility,” in Geographies of Time, 05/10/2023, https://ian.hypotheses.org/2183.

Indovino in grado di prevedere il futuro, affetto da sordità e mutismo ma brillante ospite nei salotti mondani, venditore di talismani e medicine mi- racolose, Duncan Campbell (1680-1730 ca.) è stato un’attrazione popolare nella Londra del primo Settecento. Posta al centro di varie narrazioni, la sua figura ha assunto una particolare qualità letteraria. Questo saggio si propone di mostrare come la fama costruita su una proclamata «seconda vista» che lo metteva in grado di scorgere il futuro faccia del suo caso un ottimo osservatorio sulla negoziazione di ciò che, nell’età della Ragione, costituiva autorevolezza e credibilità, credulità e superstizione. Sullo sfondo di un uso del futuro come agone conoscitivo, il caso di Campbell esemplifica l’esistenza di rapporti di forza tra spazi centrali e periferici rispetto a potenze europee in espansione come quelle britannica e svedese. La tematizzazione di aspetti di genere, e l’indagine empirica del preternaturale connessa alle abilità eccezionali di Campbell e alla sua disabilità ne collocano il caso all’intersezione di una moltitudine di problemi epistemologici interessati, tra fine Sei e primo Settecento, da mutamenti profondi.

The History of the Life and Adventures, plate before ToC. "An Evil Genius. 2 Good Genij" . uncredited source is John Beaumont's Treatise of Spirits). The plate is missing in some copies. Copy at Oxford University
[W. Bond], The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, A Gentleman, Who, tho’ Deaf and Dumb, Writes down Any Stranger’s Name at First Sight, with their Future Contingencies of Fortune, etc. With Plates, Including a Portrait, London, Printed for E. Curll […], 1720, plate before ToC. “An Evil Genius. 2 Good Genij” . uncredited source is John Beaumont’s Treatise of Spirits). The plate is missing in some copies. Copy at Oxford University

Between Documentation and Dispossession

the Language of the Nuu-chah-nulth People in the Journals of James Cook’s Third Voyage – History Workshop Journal

‘Various Articles, at Nootka Sound’. Engraving by James Record after Webber, in A voyage to the Pacific Ocean undertaken, by the command of His Majesty, for making discoveries in the northern hemisphere performed under the direction of Captains Cook, Clerke, and Gore, in His Majesty’s ships the Resolution and Discovery; in the years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780 […] The second edition, London, Printed by H. Hughs for G. Nicol […] and T. Cadell […], 1785, 3 vols, II, plate after p. 306. Copy at Wellcome Collection, under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
A bird rattle, a wooden model of bird with stone inside (numbered 1) and three masks or head decoys (numbered 2, 3, 4), one of them (2) a seal’s face, possibly used when hunting.
‘Various Articles, at Nootka Sound’. Engraving by James Record after Webber, in A voyage to the Pacific Ocean undertaken, by the command of His Majesty, for making discoveries in the northern hemisphere performed under the direction of Captains Cook, Clerke, and Gore, in His Majesty’s ships the Resolution and Discovery; in the years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780 […] The second edition, London, Printed by H. Hughs for G. Nicol […] and T. Cadell […], 1785, 3 vols, II, plate after p. 306. Copy at Wellcome Collection, under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. A bird rattle, a wooden model of bird with stone inside (numbered 1) and three masks or head decoys (numbered 2, 3, 4), one of them (2) a seal’s face, possibly used when hunting.

Through a case study of James Cook’s third voyage and his contact with the Nuu-chah-nulth people of Vancouver Island in 1778, this article just published on the History Workshop Journal sheds new light on the epistemological dispossession of indigenous peoples that accompanied European expansion in the eighteenth century. Continue reading “Between Documentation and Dispossession”

Credulity, Curiosity, and Credibility

Second sight, superstition, seduction.
Prediction of the future, female curiosity and the story of Duncan Campbell in early 18th century England

A fortune-teller who could predict the future, a dumb-mute skilled in mundane conversation, a seller of talismans and miraculous medicines, Duncan Campbell (c. 1680-1730) was a popular attraction in early 18th-century London. Placed at the centre of a number of biographical and autobiographical narratives, his figure took on a particular literary quality.

A reputation built on a proclaimed ‘second sight‘ that enabled him to see the future, and advice on especially sentimental and matrimonial matters, make his case an excellent observatory on the negotiation of what, in the age of reason, constituted authority and credibility, credulity and superstition, and how gender was thematised within this negotiation.

This research focuses on The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr Duncan Campbell, a biography published by Edmund Curll in 1720 and long spuriously attributed to Daniel Defoe. The text offers an unusual glimpse into the contemporary discourse on the relationship between gender and the problem of credulity. Against the backdrop, well known to contemporary historiography, of the conceptualisation of women as exponents of a vulnerable, manipulable and gullible public, the History outlines the problem of the relationship between the female public and popular beliefs inherent in predicting and controlling the future.

In defending Duncan Campbell’s credibility – boasting his Lappish birth and the efficacy of his predictions and recipes – The History insists on the disqualification of competing forms and actors in the field of divination. The book aims to counteract the seductions of Kabbalistic chimeras that too easily capture innocent minds, the impostures of false diviners and swindlers, the dangers of the obscure arts of conjurers and inchanters, and the typically female superstitious practices that are passed down through generations.

The History of Duncan Campbell: geographies of beliefs

A list of locations mentioned in The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr Duncan Campbell. Dot size represent frequency, movement shows mentions order in the narrative.

The History of Duncan Campbell: key concepts in relation

Selected key concepts frequently mentioned in the novel and their context. Hover over to highlight relations, right click to remove words, use drop-down search to add words.