ABSTRACT
Star, or Psi Cassiopeia: The Marvelous History of One of the Worlds of Outer Space, subtitled “Fantasia” by its author Charlemagne Ischir Defontenay, occupies a significant place in the literary history of early science fiction (SF). Published in 1854 in Paris, this 325-page novel combines poetry and theater and is divided into five “Books,” each one preceded by an introduction and followed by an “Epilogy” [sic]. Star tells of the discovery of a meteorite containing strange manuscripts and a series of documents depicting an entire alien world. The narrator in the documents explains that his information comes from the found manuscripts, and he then takes the reader on a mind-journey to the Psi Cassiopeia system, describing the mother-planet, inhabited satellites, nature, races, peoples, and customs. Three times, his description is replaced by a text “translated from the Starian.” Those quoted extracts give the novel the appearance of a documentary, which played an important role in establishing the reputation of Star. Known as “a precursor of Jules Verne” or “the first space opera” of the science fiction genre, the novel marks an interesting step in the evolution that led the “other world” or “imaginary voyage” story to take on a referential autonomy that is typical of modern science fiction. In Star, the fictional “autonomization” of the text creates a sort of completeness; illusionary, as usual in fiction, but strengthened by the narratological choices of the author, not only through the inclusion of alien poetry and the documentary record, but also by a story-within-a-story structure that multiplies the text’s specular effects.
