The sleep of (Scientific) reason produces (literary) monsters or, how science and literature shake hands

Abstract

Enlightened reason and romantic imagination were seen as two opposing ways of conceiving art and life. Today, from our historical vantage point, it is difficult to understand one without the other. As if the nightmares of science were nothing more than the food of romantic monsters. This article analyses the evolution of fantastic literature and the birth of scientific fiction in the nineteenth century, as well as the conflict between the rational and the supernatural